Before the Seal is Broken
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: After the 2nd battle with Lucemon, the spirits are sent to the real world and sealed in the cards. But when the seal stopping his rebirth begins to break, the LW must find and free the spirits before the evil is released. Lead to DA- full summary inside
1. The Start of A New Year

**Author's Notes**

Hello everyone. This story has been floating around for awhile, and this chapter was half finished, so I decided to just finish it and post it up. Man, I really need to stop starting new stories...got enough ongoing ones as it is. Only, I can't keep the ideas in my head.

Anyway, this is a crossover between two of my favourite anime series, Digimon Frontier and Yu Gi Oh GX.

In terms of context, this story takes place from the start of the second season of Yu Gi Oh GX (ie. Judai and co.'s second year). For the Digimon Frontier crew, it takes place approximately five years after the events from frontier.

Here's just a brief rundown. I put the English names in brackets for those who are unfamiliar with the Japanese names, though I will be using the Japanese names in this story.

Frontier Crew:

Kanbara Takuya (Takuya Kanbara): 16 years old/Orisis Red second year

Orimoto Izumi (Zoe Orimoto): 16 year old/Obelisk Blue second year

Minomoto Kouji (Koji Minomoto): 16 years old/Obelisk Blue second year

Kimura Kouichi (Koichi Kimura): 16 years old/Obelisk Blue second year

Himi Tomoki (Tommy Himi): 14 years old/Slifer Red first year

Shibiyama Junpei (JP Shibiyama): 17 years old/Ra Yellow third year

Legendary Warriors:

Fire: Human - Agnimon (Agunimon), Beast - Vritramon (BurningGreymon), Fusion - Ardhamon (Aldamon)

Wind: Human - Fairymon (Kazemon), Beast - Shutumon (Zephrymon), Fusion - JetSilphymon

Light: Human - Wolfmon (Lobomon), Beast - Garrmon (KendoGarrurumon), Fusion - Beowulfmon (Beowolfmon)

Darkness: Human - Lowemon, Best - KaiserLeomon (JagerLowemon), Fusion - Reichmon (Raihmon)

Ice: Human - Chakkmon (Kumamon), Beast - Blizzarmon (Korikakumon), Fusion - Daipenmon

Thunder: Human - Blitzmon (Bettlemon), Beast - Borgmon (MetalKabuterimon), Fusion - RhinoKabuterimon

Just because I've mentioned them all here, doesn't mean they're all popping up in this story. It just makes things a whole lot less confusing down the track.

DA Crew:

Yuki Judai (Jaden Yuki): 16 years old/ Slifer Red second year

Marufuji Sho (Syrus Truesdale): 16 years old/Slifer Red second year

Marufuju Ryou (Zane Truesdale): Graduated previous year

Tenjoin Asuka (Alexis Rhodes): 16 years old/Obelisk Blue second year

Tenjoin Fubuki (Alexis Rhodes): 18 years old/Obelisk Blue second year

Misawa Daichi (Bastion Misawa): 16 years old/Ra Yellow second year

Manjyome Jun (Chazz Princton): 16 years old/Slifer Red second year

Maeda Hayato (Chumley Huffington): Graduated previous year

All other new freshmen that play a role in this story will be introduced when the need arises.

By the way, the last bit of this chapter is from the end of episode 53 of Yu Gi Oh GX. As a side note, remember that Edo Phoenix is a professional duellist, and I get the feeling that he does not live in Japan, despite being Japanese. Therefore, for the sake of this story, he lives in America, and in America, first name goes before last, as opposed to last name before first in Japan.

* * *

**Before the Seal is Broken**

After the second battle with Lucemon, the ten ancient spirits are sent to the real world and sealed in the cards. But when the seal stopping his rebirth begins to break, the Legendary Warriors must track down and liberate the spirits before the evil is released. But when their search leads them to Duel Academy, will school, new friends and both new and old enemies stand in the way?

Kouichi K & Judai Y

* * *

**Chapter 1: The Start of a New Year**

Sixteen year old Orimoto Izumi leaned on the boat railing, her shoulder length blonde hair flying in the ocean breeze. She was dressed in the Obelisk girls uniform, a white shirt lined with blue, and a navy blue skirt. She, like most other girls, wore navy boots that came up past her ankles, but her blue gloves, unlike the common elbow length, folded just above her wrists and showing off a white lining.

'Hard to believe that it's been five years since we all went to the Digital World,' she mused. 'And now, it needs our help again.'

'I can't wait to see Agunimon again,' Kanbara Takuya said from the floor on which he was lying, duelling cards scattered around him. His attire hadn't changed much since their fateful adventure in the digital world; he still wore his precious goggles atop his brown cap, as well as the yellow shirt and brown khaki pants. The only difference was the Orisis blazer which had replaced his short sleeved overshirt. Frowning good naturally, he turned onto his back, staring up at Minamoto Kouji who himself was leaning against the railing, dressed in a white blazer with a navy trimming, with a black shirt underneath, and white jeans, his precious bandana tied on one arm. 'Lucky how some of us didn't have to wait too long huh. You and Kouichi-kun already got your human spirits.'

Kouji simply rolled his eyes. 'No good if we can't unlock them. And it was pure luck anyway, them being in that Light and Darkness Dragon card. I don't think we'll be lucky enough to find the remaining spirits in random booster packs.'

'Yeah,' seventeen year old Shibiyama Junpei agreed, pulling his own blazer, yellow, on over his yellow and navy blue top. He also wore grey pants underneath, with blue stripes a shade lighter running down each leg. 'Can you imagine having to go through every single booster pack in the world? But then again, nothing worth doing is ever simple.'

'But even so,' Izumi said. 'It's been years since the spirits were released into our world. They're more likely now to be in people's decks than a random booster pack. Thank god we've got a way to track them, or this would be impossible.'

'And that's why we're heading to Duel Academy,' Takuya cheered, getting up and packing his cards away. 'Man they're lucky, an entire academy for this card game. I can't wait.'

Kouji sighed. 'We're there on a mission goggle-head,' he snapped. 'There's definitely at least one spirit on that island, since our D-scanners are reacting. But with so many duellists and cards in the vicinity, who knows how long it's going to take for us to track it down. And there's that tournament coming up as well. With so many duellists gathering, that island is our best bet.'

'We'll be at the island soon,' thirteen year old Himi Tomoki spoke up from his position on the floor, near enough to the rails that he could see the island approaching from between them. He was also in Orisis Red, technically too young to enter senior school, but their parents had been able to pull enough strings for him to transfer with the others. Like Takuya, he wore a red blazer, under which he wore a pale yellow shirt, and like Kouji, white jeans.

'Yay!' Takuya leapt up suddenly, racing about excitedly before disappearing below the deck to grab his belongings.

'Takuya...' Kouji growled, annoyed, before being cut off by a gentle hand on his shoulder.

'Relax 'touto-san,' his elder twin brother Kimura Kouichi chided. 'Let Takuya-kun have his fun.'

The elder twin, was, like his brother, in Obelisk, but that was about the only similarity in their attire. He wore a long sleeved white shirt, over which he wore a black overshirt which was mostly covered by the navy blue blazer he adorned. The blazer however was sleeveless, allowing the short sleeves of the overshirt to show, underneath which the white sleeves came up to his wrists, much like the green and red attire he had worn in the Digital World. He wore black jeans, as opposed to his brother's white, and his favourite blue cap had, much to his displeasure, been left behind in Shinjuku.

The younger twin sighed, before turning to face the elder. 'What about you?'

They all knew what he was talking about. 'We are going to a duel school Kouji,' he sighed. 'There's no way in avoiding duelling completely.'

'But still, you could...' he let his voice trail off, not wanting to say it out loud. It wasn't necessary to, in any case. They were all aware of the circumstances.

The shorter twin smiled slightly at his brother's over-protectiveness. Despite the fact that he was yet to voice his request, the other was quite aware of what he wanted. 'I won't duel unless I cannot avoid it, okay?'

Kouji sighed. 'Okay...I just wish there was a way to avoid it completely.'

Kouichi smiled sadly, as his brother turned to face the approaching island. 'So do I 'touto-chan,' he said quietly, so no-one could hear. 'But there isn't.'

* * *

'Aniki! Aniki! Wake up!'

Seventeen year old Yuki Judai simply turned away and buried his head into his pillow.

'Aniki! The new students are going to be arriving any minute! Don't you want to check out the new competition?'

'I'm up! I'm up!' He shot up, banging his head against the bunk above him. 'Oww...Ohayou Sho-kun.'

'Ohayou,' seventeen year old Marifuji Sho replied, moving away from the bed, already dressed in his uniform. 'You might want to hurry up and get dressed Aniki. The boat is going to dock in five minutes, and I heard there's some new transfers as well. One of them is moving in with us.'

'A new roomie?' Judai asked, quickly shedding his pyjamas and dressing in his own uniform. 'Wait a sec..since when did DA allow transfers?'

Sho shrugged. 'Dunno. I think DA's always had the transfer programme, but we were probably just not aware of it.'

The brunette pulled on his blazer the rest of the way, before slipping his feet into the pair of shoes by the door.

'Come on Sho-kun,' he called, racing down the stairs.

'How does he manage to have so much energy when it comes to duelling and duelling opponents?' Sho wandered aloud, following his best friend.

* * *

The other five laughed as their goggle-headed leader bounded down the stairs, literally, tripping over his bags in his excitement and lack of grace.

'Oh come on guys,' he grumbled, attempting to untangle himself from his luggage at the pier. 'A little help here?'

That just caused the others to laugh harder. They had chosen to wait till the other students were off before disembarking, so Takuya's little mishap was not holding up any traffic. But Takuya's daily antics were quite amusing to watch.

The brunette eventually managed to untangle himself, and bent to pick up his bags, only for a blur of red to crash into him and knock him over again.

A blue haired boy in a red blazer ran up panting, assumingly following the blur of red, Izumi, Junpei and Tomoki joining him as they stepped onto the pier. The twins were still on the ladder, waiting for the huddle to disperse enough for them to disembark as well.

'Ahem.' Kouji cleared his throat when no-body moved.

'Oh sorry.' The red blur, now identified as a brunette roughly of Takuya's height and build and also wearing an Orisis Red blazer, got to his feet, pulling up the boy he had accidently knocked over in his haste. Takuya once again bent down to collect his scattered luggage, while the twins finally stepped off the boat.

The other brunette was still apologizing, but Takuya managed to wave him off with his free hand. 'Don't worry about it. Heck, I manage to cause enough mayhem as it is. By the way, I'm Kanbara Takuya.'

'Yuki Judai,' the other said, offering his hand. Grinning, Takuya took it, and the two shook hands. 'Allow me to be the first to say welcome.'

'Um, Aniki? Do you mind introducing me too?' the blue haired kid asked from behind.

'Oh, right. Sorry.' Judai scratched his head. 'This is Marufuji Sho.' He indicated the boy behind him. 'And you all are?' he asked, turning to the other five.

'I'm Orimoto Izumi,' Izumi introduced herself, bowing clumsily. Even after the eight years she had spent in Japan, she was still not used to the cultural differences from Italy.

'Shibiyama Junpei,' Junpei introduced himself, attempting to bow, but failing due to the bags he held, so he was forced to settle for an inclination of his head.

'I'm Himi Tomoki,' Tomoki introduced himself, smiling at Sho, who was about the same height, before bowing. Sho politely bowed back.

The twins glanced at each other, before Kouji sighed and introduced them both, the two bowing in sync, not hindered by their bags.

'Twins?' Judai asked. 'You two look the same.'

Takuya laughed. 'I thought the same thing when I first saw them. Mixed Kouji-kun with his brother.'

Kouji simply rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath, which resulted in Kouichi elbowing him in the side and turning a pale flush of pink that mothers wore when their children said something offensive.

Judai opened his mouth to say something, however any further talk was unfortunately cut short by the appearance of a certain professor on the scene.

'Drop-out boy!' Professor Chronos de Mediz screeched, dressed in his normal blue blazer and pink frills. 'Don't taint the precious new students with your appalling habits.'

'Though you can keep those Orisis Red flunkies,' he added as an afterthought.

The transfers stared at each other, more than a little confused, but Judai simply grinned at his teacher. 'Ah, no worries Sensei.'

He turned to the others. 'Let's go,' he announced enthusiastically, seizing Takuya by the wrist and dragging him towards the main building. 'The opening pep-rally is about to start.'

The others laughed at Judai's enthusiasm, except Kouji who simply muttered something about another goggle-head, and Kouichi, who simply gave a small smile, as the remaining six followed after the two leading.

* * *

Professor Chronos de Mediz, temporary principal, scowled as the drop-out boy led the six new transfers. _Humph...as if this school's name requires any more tarnishing._

'Why are we here again?' the temporary vice principal Napoleon scowled, dressed in his green regal French suit.

'Well...' Chronos suddenly flourishes a magazine from one of his pockets, flipping through the pages before pointing to a specific picture. 'What do you think?'

'Hmm...Edo Phoenix.' He looked up. 'What about him?'

'Oh my dear Napoleon,' Chronos sighed. 'Don't you keep up with the times. Latest news is that he has enrolled here at Duel Academy.' He looked back at the almost empty boat. 'Though he is late.'

Someone suddenly vaults over the rails and landed heavily on the pier. He's tall, and muscular, with long dreadlocks, and wearing a dinosaur-like bandana, earrings, a necklace made from bones and teeth, as well as a sleeveless Ra yellow uniform.

'Hey, old guys!' he says. Chronos and Napoleon are a little offended by that. 'You guys have anything to do with Duel Academy-saurus?'

'That's right. You see, I am –' Chronos is rudely interrupted as the student grabs him by the collar and yanks him up to yell in his face.

'Why the hell am I in Yellow and not Blue-don? I'm Tyranno Kenzan! There's nobody around who's a match for me-don!'

'Well, you see-' Chronos stuttered, before muttering under his breath, 'Napoleon-san, feel free to jump in at any time.'

Napoleon sighed at his co-worker's behaviour, before proceeding to explain the system, of which new students are only placed in Obelisk Blue if they come from the associated junior high, or else they have the proper associations. All others are sorted into Osiris Red or Ra Yellow based on their skills. That Kenzan was placed in Ra Yellow shows his superiority compared to others who had to take the exams.

'Superior, me?' Kenzan laughs at this, before patting the slightly shaking Chronos on the shoulder, before walking off cheerfully.

The principal and vice principal watched him go. 'And Phoenix-san still has not shown up...'


	2. Change! Mecha Ojama King

**Author's Notes**

Hi again everyone. Finally finished this chapter. Story is fully planned out, and to anyone who didn't see it in my profile, the story is going to be 77 chapters long. Sigh...it's going to take forever.

Or maybe not. Regardless, keep on reading and supporting...I pretty much thrive off support.

BTW, since this is a crossover between Digimon and Yu Gi Oh GX, with the frontier characters entering at the beginning of the second year, there will be some chapters almost purely with the Yu Gi Oh GX gang, and some with almost purely Digimon, and some mixes. Pretty much everything in the second season still happens, with minor changes (ie. with the time line in this case), and of course, additions.

And like **Brother, Hear Me Cry**, I'll put the previews at the end of the chapter.

Enjoy.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Digimon or Yu Gi Oh GX or any of the characters in either of them. All I own is my writing and my personal opinion.

* * *

**Before the Seal is Broken**

After the second battle with Lucemon, the ten ancient spirits are sent to the real world and sealed in the cards. But when the seal stopping his rebirth begins to break, the Legendary Warriors must track down and liberate the spirits before the evil is released. But when their search leads them to Duel Academy, will school, new friends and both new and old enemies stand in the way?

* * *

**Chapter 2: Change! Mecha Ojama King**

'Judai-kun! Sho-kun!' a female voice called as the two arrived at the administration building with the transfers, Judai still dragging the Warrior of Flame by his wrist. Said brunette immediately let go, glancing at the entrance where a tall, blonde-haired Obelisk Blue waited. She was dressed in the normal Obelisk female attire, much akin to Izumi's own, although her gloves were the common elbow length and lacked a white lining.

Judai waved a greeting, to which she replied in the same manner, as the group approached. 'New students?' she asked, smiling kindly at the unfamiliar faces, her hazel eyes twinkling in the afternoon sun.

They nodded in reply, and she bowed in their direction in greeting. 'Tenjoin Asuka,' she introduced, before turning to the other blonde. 'Are you Orimoto Izumi?'

Izumi nodded, looking slightly confused. 'How did you know?'

Asuka smiled again. 'The administration assigned you to be my roommate,' she explained. 'You'll be staying with me for the year.'

'You're lucky,' Judai commented offhand, and causing the said blonde to blush with the next statement. 'Asuka-chan's cool.'

Izumi, on the other hand, grinned, pleased with her roommate, while Tomoki and Junpei desperately hoped that the students they were assigned to house with were as nice as the three already met. The twins didn't have to worry; the administration had assigned them both to the same room, and Obelisk dorms held at most, two to a room, while the Ra dorms held three, and the Orisis dorms, four.

Sho was pacing a tad bit nervously near the entrance. 'We're late,' he muttered in the silence following Judai's statement. The tall Obelisk immediately banished her blush and checked her watch, realising that they were, indeed, late.

'Oh man,' Judai complained. 'We'll miss the first official duel of the year.' And with that, he raced off down one of the hallways.

Sho simply face-palmed his head as Asuka called after him:

'Judai! They still have to introduce the-,' she cut herself off when seeing that Judai was out of earshot. 'Never mind,' she sighed, starting off at a rapid pace after him, gesturing at the others to follow, which they did at the same rapid pace, kicking up dust behind them, save the twins who followed rather unhurriedly, simply following the dust cloud.

When they arrived, they found the teacher they had seen earlier scolding the others, while a short man of French descent was finishing up the welcoming of the new students with the announcement of a duel. The two joined the group, just in time to hear their temporary principal's indignant remark to a statement from presumably one of the two Orisis Brunettes'.

'Drop-out boy! Quit it with the temporary!' he snapped, sounding vexed. The transfers, save Kouichi, snickered as Judai whistled innocently, though the warrior of darkness did allow a small smile to grace his face. 'Besides,' he continued, pointedly ignoring the others, 'there is a good reason for choosing Signor Manjyome for this duel.'

The twins looked to the stage at this comment, seeing a second-year boy with black hair, obsidian eyes and a Kouji-like attitude standing there. Kouji, for one, was none too pleased when his brother erupted into a fit of giggles, muttering 'Ni-san' in a warning tone, which prompted more laughter from the rest of the legendary warriors, and those originally from the school looked slightly confused at their reaction.

'Sorry,' Kouichi said, coughing to get the laughter out of his system. 'But his expression looked just like yours.'

It occurred to the three second-years who had accompanied the transfers that that was their first time hearing the shorter-haired twin's voice. It was rather soft, so much so that they had to strain to hear it, but it had the slight tinge of music to it, as did his laughter.

Kouji was none too thrilled by this speculation, but as it was the truth, he had no choice but to drop the matter, tuning back in to hear the rest of Chronos' explanation, and Asuka's indignant comeback.

'You call that a profound reason?' she said incredulously, the students all looking relatively unimpressed.

Back on the stage, the other was finishing the introductions for the duel. 'And now, the challenger in this duel! The super-elite who graduated at the top of his class in our junior high: Gokaido Houzan.'

'A first year in Obelisk already?' Judai asked, sounding impressed. 'Sounds like Manjyome-kun.'

'Yeah,' Sho agreed. 'He was after all in the same situation last year.'

They made their way to a bunch of empty seats, Izumi, Asuka, Sho, Judai, Takuya, Tomoki and Tomoki sitting in that order in one row, with the twins sitting behind them, with Junpei, for his own reasons, sitting between the two.

Meanwhile, the rest of the gathered students were laughing at the other teacher's predicament, having been hindered in his attempts to get off the stage, had fallen and entangled himself in the microphone wire.

Their attention was however immediately diverted to the stage, as the freshman, Gokaido, spoke.

'I'm curious to know,' he began, 'why an elite duellist like yourself fell from the Obelisk rank to Orisis Red.'

'I didn't _fall_,' the black haired junior retorted. 'If that annoying Judai wouldn't rise to my level, to defeat him myself, I had to aim lower, from Blue to Red!'

Said Orisis looked offended at that, and the transfers, save Takuya, laughed again at their leader's expense, seeing the similarity between his expression and Takuya's repeated offence at Kouji's banter.

'Two incompetent goggle-heads,' Kouji repeated once the laughter died down, causing Kouichi to lean over Junpei and flick him on the nose. 'Hey!' he exclaimed thereafter, but the elder twin had already settled back into his seat, as Takuya whipped around and retaliated with a glare, the other addressed having not heard the comment.

'But then, what's the point of this duel?' Sho wondered out loud, effectively steering the conversation back on track.

'But that game is over,' Manjyome continued from the stage, as if answering the question. 'I am going to beat you, and return to Obelisk Blue.'

_And I won't have to put up with Judai's idiocy any longer, _he thought afterwards.

'Duel!' The two declared, activating their duel disks.

'I'll take the first turn,' Gokaido declared, drawing his sixth card. 'After all, I'm the freshman. And I'll play Marauding Captain.' He slid the drawn card into his duel disk and a lightly coloured knight appeared, wielding a standard size sword.

'By its effect, I can summon one level four or lower monster directly from my hand,' he explained, scanning over the five cards remaining before slamming one into a vacant monster card zone. 'I summon Warrior Lady of the Wasteland.'

A scantily clad warrior lady appeared, dressed in a miniskirt and tattered cloak, arms crossed in front of her in only a slightly intimidating manner. Manjyome hardly seemed impressed at the display.

'Such weak monsters,' he commented offhand. 'So useless.'

'I'm not done,' the Obelisk freshman countered. 'I play Jewelled Sword, increasing Marauding Captain's attack points by 300, then Divine Sword Phoenix Blade, increasing Warrior Lady of the Wasteland's attack points by 300 as well.'

Both warriors obtained a new weapon and a three hundred point advantage, neither one making his opponent seem any more impressed.

'I watched you,' Gokaido said suddenly. 'Back at Duel Prep. The cards you chose, your smart strategies, your attitude of laughing in the face of criticism...you probably don't know this, but I've waited so long to be able to face you in a duel. I've worked at my best to achieve this level, so I want you to now show me your best!'

The addressed junior was silent, lips twisting almost transparently into a smirk. 'You want my best, freshman? Well, you should be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.' With that last word, he drew a card from his deck, briefly scanning it, before placing it into his hand and summoning another. 'I play X-Head Cannon.' He didn't slam the card into his duel disk with the energy the other displayed; it would have been rather degrading for a Manjyome, but he came as close as his dignity allowed, the cannon's holographic projection appearing in front of him on the field.

He gave his opponent no time to react before another card slid into the duel disk. 'Graceful Charity,' he stated simply, drawing three cards from his deck, before adding two to his hand before discarding the remaining one, which happened to be Hell Polymer, and Ojamagic which was previously in his hand.

'Ojamagic?' Gokaido questioned, stunned. Evidently, either he had never heard of the card, or he didn't imagine his inspirational duellist to have one.

'When it is sent to the graveyard,' Manjyome explained, taking his deck out of its holder and looking through it. 'I can search my deck and add Ojama Yellow, Ojama Green and Ojama Black to my hand.' He extracted the said cards, before adding them to his hand, shuffling the remainder of his deck and replacing into the deck holder.

As he does, the spirits appear, floating close to his head.

_'You call us?'_ They asked together.

From the stands, Judai laughed, while the transfers blinked in surprise.

'Kawaii!' Izumi exclaimed, grinning suddenly. 'They're so cute!'

While the other transfers gave the only female in their group odd looks, Syrus and Alexis exchanged a glance, while Judai craned his neck up to bring them all into his line of vision.

'Nice family, ne?' he asked, before laughing again as the black-haired junior tried to swat them away. 'They have a rather...interesting relationship.'

For those who could not see monster spirits, it was a rather odd display of behaviour; indeed, it was odd for those who could see them, save those familiar with their antics, and the transfers exchanged a glance once more.

'Monster spirits?' Takuya eventually asked, breaking eye contact with the others and turning back to the other Orisis Brunette. 'Not everyone can see them?'

'No.' Judai shook his head. 'Only those who have a special connection to their cards, or some other sort of link. Kagemaru-san could see them as well, though that had nothing to do with any sort of bond with his cards...'

The transfers just looked more confused, but nonetheless turned back to the duel, while Gokaido sprouted a shocked expression at the low stats of his hero's monsters.

'Trash,' he muttered, under his breath.

'I play the spell Ojama Get Ride,' Manjyome continued, sounding irritated. 'By sending my three Ojama's to the graveyard, I can summon up to three Machine-type union monsters from my deck in defence mode. So I summon Y-Dragonhead and Z-Metal Caterpillar in defence mode.'

At his opponent's silence, he added: 'Even with trash cards like these, if they are in my hand, I can find a use for them.'

'Trash cards?' Izumi exclaimed indignantly at the offense against such cute spirits, further heightened by their sad expressions as they vanished into the void of the graveyard.

'Manjyome-kun's just like that,' Judai explained. 'He really does care for them, he just doesn't show it.'

'San da, and shut it dropout,' said duellist snapped from the stage, having heard.

Judai laughed, but kept silent as the junior continued his turn.

'I now combine them to form XYZ-Dragon Cannon!'

The three combined, breaking off and rearranging parts till it formed a large, multicoloured cannon, which immediately wiped out the other's field with its special affect.

'No go,' he declared, pointing at his opponent. 'Direct attack!'

With no monsters, Gokaido was forced to take the brunt of the attack, his life points dropping 1200. He grimaced at the damage, but drew a card in return for Jewelled Sword's destruction, as Manjyome ended his turn.

'Impressive,' the short man who had announced the duel muttered from the sidelines.

'Of course Napolean,' Chronos affirmed, coming to sit beside him. 'Though he wastes away in Orisis, his true strength is like an origami crane...'

'Origami crane?' The vice princicpal, Napolean Bonaparte, wore a rather confused expression, but brushed it aside at his cohort's eccentricness.

With the gang, Takuya whistled, clearly impressed, while Tomoki sat enthusiastically at the edge of his seat. The twins were more placid, Kouji watching with an almost bored expression on his face, while Kouichi looked sleepy like he always did, preferring to sleep through the day and stay awake during the night but rarely being able to and so being forced to tough it out. Junpei, sitting between them, was however paying close attention to the strategies used, while Izumi was still preoccupied by the spirits.

Gokaiko drew his next card, immediately activating Pot of Greed and drawing another two, grinning at the new addition, his key card, before triggering his face down Call of the Haunted and resurrecting his Warrior Lady of the Wastelands and equipping her with Grade Sword.

Manjyome seemed sceptical at the appearance of yet another equip magic card, especially since neither it nor the monster equipped could hold the candles to his own monster.

His opponent read the expression with a grin. 'I sacrifice Warrior Lady of the Wastelands to summon Gilford the Legend,' he explained, the lady monster disappearing and being replaced with a taller, stronger and muscular man holding a large silver sword.

'How did that happen?' Judai asked, looking confused.

'It's because of Grade Sword,' Asuka explained. 'The equipped monster counts as two sacrifices in a tribute summoning.'

'Oh,' he said, looking back to the field, as Jewelled Sword, Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade and Grade Sword appeared from the graveyard.

'When this monster is successfully summoned,' Gokaido explained smugly as his warrior grew in size, 'I can equip to any warrior on my field as many equip spells from my graveyard as possible.'

He discarded a card from his hand, before playing another. 'I activate Wicked Breaking Flamberge – Baou, increasing Gilford's attack points by 500. In addition, should my monster destroy one of yours in battle, your monster's effect is negated.'

A scowl graced Manjyome's face as he realised his monster was outmatched, which Gilford immediately validated by dispatching his monster, his life points decreasing with the difference.

'You know,' he commented, once his monster had bit the dust. 'If you couldn't accomplish this at least, this wouldn't have been interesting at all.'

He drew then, and like his opponent, began his turn with Pot of Greed, drawing two cards, before he activated another spell card. Ojamandella.

'With Ojamandalla,' he explained. 'I can sacrifice 1000 life points to summon back the three Ojamas.'

_'We're back!'_ they cheered as they reappeared, Izumi up in the stands squealing again, causing Tomoki beside her to block his ears.

'Gomen,' she muttered, as the younger boy uncovered his ears.

Gokaido still looked rather unimpressed.

'Do you have any idea what I can do with these little runts on my field?' he asked.

'Sure,' the other replies sarcastically.

'I think not,' he countered, activating another spell card. 'I activate Ojama Delta Hurricane to blow away all your monsters.'

The three cheered, before swirling around the large monster as he denoted in a contained explosion.

'How-?' Gokaido spluttered, before containing his composure. 'I draw one card due to Jewelled Sword's effect.'

He did so, as Manjyome slipped a face down card into his spell and trap card zone.

'Don't tell me that's another Ojama whatever card!' the other exclaimed.

Manjyome's smirk was all the answer he needed.

He frowned. 'At some point...you started using this weak deck. You are not the Manjyome-sempai I used to look up to!'

'Man,' Takuya laughed from his seat. 'Those two are like clones of each other. Though he's not quite as obnoxious as Kouji used to be.'

Said Obelisk just stared at him, unable to decide whether to take that as a compliment or insult, before simply rolling his eyes and turning back to the field.

'You call it weak?' Manjyome asked calmly. 'That's not saying much when you're losing to it.'

The freshman simply scowled in response and began his turn. 'Premature Burial activate!' he declared, life points dropping to 400 as Armed Samurai Ben-Kei appeared, previously discarded with Wicked Flamberge-Baou's effect. 'I next activate Divine Sword-Phoenix Blade's effect, removing two warriors from my graveyard to return it to my hand, and then I'll return it to Ben-Kei along with Lightning Blade, increasing its attack points to 1600.'

He declared the attack against Ojama Yellow, instantly destroying it, before turning to the two remaining. 'Ben-Kei gets an extra attack for each equip spell attached to him,' Gokaido explained as the samurai dispatched the others as well.

Manjyome stared at his face-down as Ben-Kei launched his final attack. _I could activate it now,_ he thought, _at the lost of an Ojama._

However, he chose not to, the attack striking him directly and lowering his attack points to 200.

'Ha!' his opponent exclaimed. 'See, how weak your cards are.'

The transfers were silent, as were Judai and his friends, waiting to see what Manjyome would do. And what he did was trigger his face down.

'I activate Ojama Delta Brief,' he said, revealing the trap. 'I resurrect my Ojamas.'

The three brothers returned, crying at the damage Manjyome had taken for them, as Judai beamed like a Chesire cat. 'See,' he said. 'He does care. Otherwise he could have played that before and protected his life points.'

'Yeah...' Izumi responded softly. 'He does care.' Then slightly louder. 'Just like Kouji-kun.'

'Hey,' said boy exclaimed, but he was immediately distracted by his brother.

'He gave his own life points to protect them...' Kouichi muttered, the other five giving him side-long glances.

'It's not the same,' Junpei whispered in his ear, so no one save the warriors heard.

'I know...'

Back on the field, Gokaido was talking once more.

'The Academy was right,' he said. 'You have been reduced to Orisis trash.'

'Reduced to?' he asked archly.

'I've heard about Osiris Red.' The freshman smirks. 'The building is crumbling, the food is terrible, the rooms are tiny, and the dorm head is a cat! And on top of that, the duellists are all trash!'

'That's true,' he responded, invoking cries of anger from the Orisis duellists. 'The weak always stay weak-they are all trash.'

Even Sho was angered. 'I know he doesn't mean it, but does he have to make it sound so insulting?'

'But...' the black-haired Orisis continued, ignoring the uproar he had caused. 'By lowering myself to their level, I've seen things the Elite can't.'

He drew his card, then smirked. 'I activate Polymerisation,' he declared, the three Ojama's spiralling into the air.

_'Let's go'_

_ 'The Ojama Ultimate Fusion.'_

_ 'Here it comes.'_

'I summon Ojama King,' Manjyome declared.

'0 attack points?' Gokaido questioned.

Manjyome smirked. 'There are some things only these guys can do. Activate, Change! Mecha Ojama King.'

Ojama King leaps into the air, before descending as an even more bizarre version of itself. At his opponent's bewildered expression, Manjyome explains.

'You're probably wondering why my Mecha Ojama King has no attack points as well,' he sighed. 'Well, when he's on the field, once a turn, I can summon one Ojamachine per turn, so I select Ojamachine Yellow.'

A robotic version of Ojama Yellow appears, suddenly replicating and filling up his vacant monster card zones.

'Wha-?'

'Special ability.' Manjyome then orders their attack, much to general astonishment, which is quickly rectified once explained.

'When Ojamachine Yellow battles, I take no damage,' he explains, savouring the other's fading cocky expression. 'And you take 300 points of damage upon destruction.'

The first explodes, lowering the freshman's life points by 300. 'Once you've fallen into hell, show me how you climb back out. If you can,' he voiced, declaring the remaining attacks.

The remaining three explode on the samurai's chest, Gokaido's life points decreasing to 0.

'You see?' he said. 'This last year hasn't been in vain! It would be impossible for you to approach my state of mind, even in a million years! You may have at the top of the junior high, but you're far below the Red duellists! You can't just look down on Red or these 'trash' cards! Because an Obelisk Blue, supposedly the best of the best, just got schooled by an Orisis Red. So Remember that! For I am... Ichi!

The crowd joined in. 'Jyu!'

As did Asuka, Sho and Judai, as the transfers look slightly confused. 'Hyaku!'

Chronos joins in as well, much to the vice-principal's astonishment. 'Sen!'

'Manjyome Thunder!' he, Manjyome Jun, proclaimed, as Judai and Sho run out, followed by the rest of the Orisis Reds, excluding Tomoki. Even Takuya had run out, hyped up by the excitement, while Kouji muttered something about goggle heads which was borne on deaf ears.

'I didn't know you loved Orisis so much,' Judai cheered, running to hug him.

Manjyome, looking very awkward, muttered 'Hang on, I didn't say that...' but no-one heard, all were too busy cheering, or else hearing the cheers.

Chronos smiles, walking up to the crowd gathered in the arena. 'Well Signor Manjyome,' he said. 'Since you so partial about Orisis, it would be futile to tear you away from it.' Then in a louder tone. 'Everyone! Signor Manjyome has chosen to remain in Orisis Red!'

The cheers from the Orisis students grew louder, none noticing the shocked expression on the black-dressed Orisis' face.

'Hang on!' he cried.

'This is great Manjyome,' Judai cheered, ignoring that last comment.

'-san da!' he screamed, frustrated beyond belief.

The remaining transfers, standing to the side now, exchanged glances once more. There was a lot to this school to get used to.

'That's not what I meant!' Manjyome's indignant remark broke through. Everyone laughed, including the transfers.

One thing they unanimously agreed on; Duel Academy was far from normal.

* * *

**Preview For Next Chapter:**

_'All right! This is more like a duel.'_

So carefree, _he muses. 'I summon Warrior of Zera, then sacrifice him to summon Archangel Zerato.'_

_'Archangel Zerato?' The fairy-type monster appeared, his pinkish skin partially covered by the red scarf around his neck and the blue warrior-dress like cloth which stemmed from his waist. The green luminescent wings shone in the afternoon sun, and behind it...  
_


	3. Spirit of Wind, Fairymon takes Flight

**Author's Notes**

All right, here's the next chapter. Enjoy.

Just on a note, the Legendary warriors only add the –kun or –chan suffix when they are in the company of anyone outside their group. On their own, no suffixes unless the twins are addressing each other by (o)nii- or (o)touto- by which case they use the –chan ending instead of the –san ending as they do publicly.

And as for Judai using the –kun ending on Edo Phoenix, he (Judai) is a year older, and a junior as opposed to a freshman, so it is socially acceptable for him to do that. Edo, out loud, calls him –sempai, but in his head, called him –san since he is younger. He also speaks more formally, unlike Judai, who uses slang.

I haven't written out the whole duel, but I only skipped a little bit in the middle. If you want to know the whole duel, you could watch episode 53, which this chapter is partially follows, or you could just read the summary on /Genex/series53.

And so no-one flames me this time, the duel itself, and part of the conversation in it is taken from episode 53, either the original or the dubbed version.

For anyone whose seen and is familiar with the second season of Yu Gi Oh GX, I apologize, since pretty much everything is repeated, though with either small changes or additions.

Document Manager's annoying. It got rid of all my formatting. Including the paragraphs.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Digimon or Yu Gi Oh GX or any of the characters in either of them. All I own is my writing and my personal opinion.

* * *

**Before the Seal is Broken**

After the second battle with Lucemon, the ten ancient spirits are sent to the real world and sealed in the cards. But when the seal stopping his rebirth begins to break, the Legendary Warriors must track down and liberate the spirits before the evil is released. But when their search leads them to Duel Academy, will school, new friends and both new and old enemies stand in the way?

* * *

**Chapter 3: Spirit of Wind, Fairymon takes Flight**

Being neat by nature, both twins had their belongings packed away in their room in record timing. Thus, with nothing else to do for the evening, both were on Kouichi's bed, the elder twin attempting to sleep, while the younger, sitting at the edge, was making it rather difficult by playing his music full blast.

And it was rock, which only made it worse.

'Kouji, can you please turn that off?' Kouichi pleaded, burying his head into his pillow.

'Nope,' the other said cheerfully, bouncing slightly on the mattress and showing his brother a more energetic side that few got to see.

'Why?'

'Because one, it's far too quiet-'

'You've been hanging around with Takuya for too long.'

'-and two, because if I let you sleep now, you'll stay up all night, then fall asleep in class tomorrow.'

'Mean,' the elder twin pouted. 'You make it sound like you're doing this for my own good.'

The other laughed good-naturedly. 'Of course I am Ni-chan. After all, you already slept on the ride here.'

Kouichi aimed a kick from under the blankets, causing the younger twin to leap off. 'Oh come on, you know it's true.'

'True,' the other mumbled into the pillow, the cute pout not leaving his face. 'But you know I can't sleep at night.'

'Hence why you have those sleeping pills.'

'True 'touto-chan,' he said, though he made a face at the memory. The pills were, unfortunately for him, rather large and rubbery tasting.

'That bad?' Kouji asked sympathetically, while Kouichi nodded in reply, turning so he could see his brother. 'Makes me glad Ophanimon gave me the Spirits of Light.'

Kouichi rolled his eyes at that, but wasn't given ample time to comment when their PDA's rang. Kouichi's, being tucked away in the blazer pocket, was ignored, while Kouji simply read the message on his own.

'Hmm...that's interesting,' he murmured, blue eyes flying across the screen.

'What is?' Kouichi yawned, propping himself up with his elbows but looking to comfortable to do much else.

'Takuya says his D-scanner picked up a spirit. He thinks some guy in a grey suit has it, and he challenged Yuki-kun to a duel.'

Kouichi cocked his head slightly, making him appear far younger than he really was, as in twelve instead of sixteen. 'You going to check it out?'

'Definitely. Can't have Takuya doing something rash.'

Kouichi laughed lightly at that, and to his pleasure, Kouji turned the music off. 'You'll keep him in line.'

The younger twin grabbed his blazer and adorned it, before turning to head out the door. The elder twin took the opportunity to close his eyes and let himself fall asleep with hopefully no more disturbance.

'You coming Ni-chan? Or sleeping?' Unfortunately, his brother's voice pierced the sleepy haze of his mind, with a hint of the teasing he generally only saw when the two were alone.

'Sleeping...' He yawned again, not bothering to open his eyes.

Kouji smiled, as in truly smiled, at his brother, though he knew he couldn't see him, and decided to let him be.

'I'm waking you up in an hour,' he said, hand on the doorknob. 'Don't want you falling asleep on your first day.'

A well aimed pillow saw him out the door.

* * *

'Ha!' Judai cheered. 'Take that.'

Elemental Hero Flame Wingman, with its single avian wing, hovered in the air above Takuya's facedown monster.

'Go,' he ordered. 'Flame Shoot.'

Takuya grinned impishly. 'Sorry to disappoint,' he said, not sounding sorry at all, 'but my Charcoal Inpachi has the same number of defence points as your Wingman's attack points.'

'Damn,' the other muttered good-naturedly as the two monsters reached a standstill.

'Kanbara-kun got you there Aniki,' Sho laughed, quickly adapting to the other boy's lively attitude.

'Oh don't worry,' Tomoki, whose room was next door but was simply hanging out with his surrogate brother, grinned. 'Takuya-nii will slip up soon.'

'Hey!' the two duellists protested, but whatever they were going to say after was interrupted by a knock on the door.

'Huh?' The holograms disappeared as Jaden deactivated his duel disk and opened the door, Takuya deactivating his own soon after and taking his deck out of the card holder. As such, he wasn't fully paying attention, which is why he jumped and banged his head on the bunk bed when a metallic beeping sounded from his blazer pocket, as well as Tomoki's blazer cast beside it.

Blinking in surprise, he fished around in the pockets, pulling out alot of junk which he would worry about later while keeping an ear on the ensuring conversation before him, before finding his D-scanner, as well as a blinking pink dot on the screen. After a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure no-one else had noticed what he was doing, he fiddled around with the buttons, trying to find the muting sequence, which after a few failed attempts, he managed to.

He muted the other as well, before stopping Tomoki as he was walking out the door, everyone else having already left.

'What's up Takuya-nii?' the ice-warrior asked, surprised to see a rare serious expression on his surrogate brother's face.

'I think whoever was at the door has a spirit.'

* * *

'Judai-kun can't live without duels,' Asuka moaned exasperatedly as she, Izumi, whom she was showing around the school, and Manjyome who had insisted on tagging along, came across the said Orisis Brunette duelling someone who appeared strangely familiar to the both of them, though Asuka for one, and Manjyome for that matter, were unable to place a name to the face.

Izumi glanced at her, but kept silent on her suspicions of the identity of the grey-suited man. After all, it seemed to her rather unlikely that a professional duellist of his calibre had found himself on an island as secluded as this.

She found Takuya, Tomoki and a blue-haired boy she remembered to be named Marufuji Sho watching the duel, though she was rather surprised when Kouji showed up less than a minute later, and what's more, on his own.

'Why did you come?' she asked curiously, thinking the two brothers would have been sharing some quality time together. 'And where's Kouichi?'

'Sleeping,' he answered softly as so only the transfers could hear, and in reverse order. 'And Takuya called.'

'Oh?' she said, raising an eyebrow, before fixating the said brunette with a stare which made him quail slightly from fear of the other's wrath, before he leaned over Tomoki to whisper an explanation in her ear and then backing off as the three watched her expression change from fake anger to shock to determination.

'So the kid in the pressed suit has it?' she asked quietly.

'It would seem so,' Tomoki affirmed. 'Our D-scanners didn't start beeping till he knocked on the door.'

'So then there's probably a spirit in one of his cards.'

'Hey,' Tomoki said suddenly, staring at the three older ones. 'Did anyone tell Junpei-kun?'

The other three looked at each other before Kouji rolled his eyes at Takuya and produced his PDA.

'Hey,' the brunette protested to his own defence. 'I got sidetracked okay.'

* * *

The other three were at the time engaged in their own discussion.

'What's he doing?' Manjyome sneered. 'Challenging a freshman?'

'Actually,' Sho corrected. 'That freshman challenged him.'

'Nani?' The other two turned to him, and the surprised exclamation was even enough to bring the transfers out of their own discussion, as well as general attention to the new addition.

'Tome-san?'

Indeed, it was the kind lady from the card shop whom they were so familiar with.

'She runs the card shop on campus,' Asuka explained to the four transfers, which soon became five as the third year Ra Yellow ran panting up to join them.

'What'd I miss?' he gasped, trying to regain his breath.

'Nothing,' Kouji replied flatly.

They turned their attention back to Sho who was explaining the challenge, especially those who had not witnessed it, or else like Takuya were not paying attention.

'He just knocked on the door of our dorm room and politely requested a duel with Aniki,' he explained. 'Said he wanted to test his skills against the best duellist at the Academy.'

'And knowing Judai-kun, he couldn't say no,' Asuka said flatly, turning her attention back to the two on the currently chosen duel field, ie. the beach, while the transfers began to converse quietly amongst themselves again.

'Though that guy really looks familiar,' Sho mused out loud, taking a closer look at the challenger.

'Yeah,' Asuka agreed. 'You're right.'

As did Manjyome. 'He does look familiar.'

Tome chuckled. 'Maybe he comes from that fancy prep school you graduated from.'

'Yeah, good call,' Sho accredited. 'He certainly looks rich enough.'

'Oh please,' the black haired junior scoffed. 'He's nothing like me.'

Luckily, neither Takuya nor Kouji had heard.

* * *

On the make-shaft duel field, the two duellists were kick-starting their duel after the introductions, or rather, lack thereof. After all, the challenger obviously knew who Yuki Judai was to challenge him, and as for the challenger himself, he didn't seem too keen on revealing his name, so he was automatically dubbed 'freshman' or 'ichinensei-kun' temporarily.

'Well then ichinensei-kun,' Judai proclaimed cheerfully. 'Let's have a fun duel.'

As opposed to the Orisis Red's enthusiastic attitude, the silver haired boy was calmly silent, simply drawing his hand, then additional card, indicating that he was taking the first turn.

'I summon Ojama Yellow in defence mode,' he sated simply, the yellow monster akin to Manjyome's own duel spirit appeared on the field, causing the said duellist to almost fall over in shock while those around him who had heard his last statement to fall into bouts of laughter.

'You were saying,' the blonde obelisk and the current object of his affections giggled.

The object of their laughter frowned. 'Bad opening move,' he scowled.

_'Yeah!'_ Ojama Yellow cheered, appearing on his shoulder. _'You'd save me for last. And I'm way better than that copy.'_

'Get lost,' Manjyome scowled.

'_Okay_,' the spirit said cheerfully, before doing as it was bid.

'Excuse me?' Asuka, being unable to see duel spirits, asked, looking a bit insulted, especially considering the other's seemingly abrupt change in routine.

'Oh, nothing,' he said, turning slightly and hiding a blush.

'Whatever.' The two, ignored by the rest, turned back to the duel as Judai excitedly claimed his turn. 'I wonder what type of deck he's using...'

'No point trying to figure it out,' Tome interjected. 'He just got eight packs from the card shop and shuffled them into a deck. So there isn't much in there.'

'Who builds a deck with leftover cards?' Manjyome asked scornfully. 'Is that kid just messing with him?'

'Probably,' Asuka agreed. 'He would have to have had a proper deck to pass the entrance exams. I wonder why though...'

* * *

'Come on out, Elemental Hero Sparkman,' Judai cheered, the thunder warrior appearing in a flash of its own element.

His opponent just seemed unconcerned, as if he had known all along his defence would not last long.

'Give this freshman his first Duel Academy lesson,' the Orisis ordered, declaring his monster's attack. Predictably, Ojama Yellow was easily destroyed.

_So it's true_, the newcomer mused. _He does use Elemental Heroes._

Out loud, he laughed. 'I should have known he was no match for your cards,' he said calmly, albeit a bit carelessly.

'Of course,' the other agreed. 'The Ojamas require special tactics. While alone they're easily destroyed, they make quite a team when combined.'

Seeing Manjyome's smirk at the apparent compliment, he added: 'You'd also have to be quite abnormal to manage them.'

The smirk vanished as Judai declared the end of his turn and the silver haired boy took his next. 'I play one card face down,' he began, 'and then-'

He was suddenly interrupted as music seemingly burst out of nowhere. Everybody, spectators and duellists too, were for a moment, thrown for a loop, till the newcomer identified the source as his cell phone, after which he immediately excused himself from the duel to take the call.

'Who whips out a cell phone in the middle of a duel?' Manjyome exclaimed. 'That's obnoxious.'

'Yeah,' Sho agreed. 'No joke.'

The Legendary Warrior of Light gave an amused chuckle after hearing that statement. 'Still think I'm like him?' he asked Takuya, jerking his thumb towards the black-coated Orisis.

'Nope,' the other said. 'You're not that...um, what's the word?'

Nobody answered him, so he eventually, along with the others, turned his attention back to the duel.

'Does anyone feel anything weird?' Kouji asked suddenly.

The others turned to him. 'No,' Tomoki answered. 'Weird like what?'

'I can't really explain it,' Kouji shrugged. 'For a moment there, it just felt like something shifted.'

At the odd gazes this statement warranted, he shrugged again. 'Probably nothing.'

'Yeah,' Izumi sighed, though looking a slight bit sceptical. 'Probably...'

Their attention had drifted away from the duel in progress, which is why it was such a shock to them when the three D-scanners not muted began reacting.

Two pairs of eyes snapped back to the duel to find the disturbance, while the remaining three tried to silence their devices.

'Takuya,' Kouji muttered under his breath and rather irritably. 'How do you mute this thing?'

'No idea,' he replied. 'I just pressed random buttons till it worked.'

'Big help.' The black haired boy continued jabbing random buttons with his index finger, turning his back to the other spectators as they glanced in their direction.

'Just my cell-phone,' the warrior of Ice explained, smiling innocently from beside Takuya as the others managed to mute their D-scanners. 'My parents are really over-protective.'

He moved slightly away from the others at that, absorbing himself in an imaginary, though rather brief, conversation with his parents.

The three turned back to the duel, with the remaining four letting out a collective sigh of relief.

'Thanks for the cover,' Junpei whispered as their youngest member rejoined them.

'You're welcome,' he grinned. 'But what did they react to?'

Izumi's eyes snapped back to the field. 'I'd say that.'

She pointed. The other's followed her line of sight.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the duel field, Judai was cheering again, his Sparkman staring down Warrior of Zera. 'All right! This is more like a duel!'

_So carefree_, he mused. 'I summon Warrior of Zera, then sacrifice him to summon Archangel Zerato.'

'Archangel Zerato?' The fairy-type monster appeared, his pinkish skin partially covered by the red scarf around his neck and the blue warrior-dress like cloth which stemmed from his waist. The green luminescent wings shone in the afternoon sun, and behind it...

A gasp. 'Fairymon?'

Luckily, only the other transfers heard. Unluckily however, they could all see the human spirit of wind sparkling in the afternoon sun, although most did not recognize the female insectoid digimon, so writing it off as a glitch in the duel disks, they continued duelling, or else watching.

Which was extremely fortunate, as they hadn't seen the expression on Izumi's face, a cross between shock, happiness and concern.

'What do we do?' she whispered frantically as a blast of light from the Sanctuary in the Sky field spell wiped the other side clean. 'That card belongs to someone. Worse, a pro.'

'We'll think of something,' Takuya whispered back. 'We could always just ask really really nicely.'

Add the odd looks he received, he added: 'What? It could work, you know.'

Kouji rolled his eyes. 'Yeah, whatever goggle-head. Keep dreaming.'

* * *

On the field, Archangel Zerato faced down Judai's Clayguardman, each with 2800 points apiece.

'Since you've got no cards in your hand,' Judai said, while at the same time ending his turn, 'and our monsters have the same points. So it all comes down to your next draw. If you don't draw a Light attribute monster, you won't be able to inflict damage.'

'A draw showdown then,' the freshman acknowledged calmly, not looking fazed at the low probability. 'That's quite like you sempai.'

Judai grinned, taking that as a compliment, though Asuka face-palmed her forehead in disbelief.

'Baka,' Manjyome muttered under his breath. 'That kid can't find a tree in a forest.'

On the field, the freshman continued with his statement. 'Leaving the result of a duel on a draw is leaving it on luck.'

'Not true.' Judai shook his head. 'Drawing is about way more than that. It's about belief; having faith in yourself and your cards makes all the difference in a draw.'

'Is it true then?' his opponent asked. 'That you see duel spirits?' Though he sounded rather sceptical.

'Sure is,' Judai replied, not noticing the scepticism and grinning at Kuriboh as it appeared, cooing.

The silver haired duellist however seemed less than happy with that answer. _For someone who gave the Kaiser, the top graduate from here, such a hard time, I expected far more_, he mused. _But it doesn't matter, I guess. This duel is almost over. Just as _he _predicted._

The freshman drew his card, and frowned slightly.

'Not a good card, eh?' Judai asked sympathetically.

'No,' the other responded. 'And with a game left entirely to chance, I lost. But a duel is different, each move having already been determined. There is a difference in luck and fate after all. With the future of the world and those in it set at birth, it is possible for it all to be divined. Therefore, each move, each choice we make, has already been decided for us.'

'Now where's the fun in that?' Judai asked, a pout of sorts in his voice. 'Not knowing what's going to happen is half the fun.

'Believe what you will,' his opponent replied. 'But this duel has already been decided. I play Beckoning Light, by which I can bring Holy Shine Ball to my hand, which then lets me use Zerato's effect again. Go, Holy Beam of Light!'

The light burst from the pinnacle of the field spell, destroying Judai's defence monster, before his opponent declared an attack.

'This is fate sempai. Attack, Holy Surge!'

'Not so fast,' Judai countered, revealing Flute of Summoning Kuriboh, summoning Hane Kuriboh who was instantly destroyed, however managed to shield its partner from damage.

'Thanks aibou,' he said to his spirit as it was destroyed. 'For taking the hit.' Then in a slightly louder voice, he continued. 'Guess we overturned that boring prophecy.'

'So that's your trump card. Makes sense for a Legendary duellist to be able to talk to his spirit.'

Apparently, Judai had missed the sarcasm, though it wasn't lost on anyone else, as his three friends at least were muttering about it.

Judai however ignored that, calling for his turn, even while his challenger watched disinterestedly. _Everything's going as he said, though I still don't see why I need him of all people to be able to further myself. Sure he's a decent duellist, but there's nothing special about him._

'I play Elemental Hero Bubbleman.' Judai slammed the card enthusiastically onto his duel disk, and the hologram of the said monster was projected. 'And since my field's empty, I get two more cards.'

He drew, then slipped one into his spell and trap card zone face down, while the other he slipped in face up. 'I play a face down, then use The Warrior Returning Alive to bring one of my warriors back, er, alive.'

Sparkman's card returned from the grave, and he added it to his hand, before playing Polymerisation to merge him with Bubbleman on his field and Elemental Hero Featherman in his hand.

'I summon Elemental Hero Tempester,' he declared, throwing a fist into the air.

_Ah,_ the challenger thought. _Here it is, Yuki-san's fusion combo._

'Attack,' he ordered. 'Chaos Tempest.'

'What?' Sho exclaimed from the cliff. 'They'll both be destroyed.'

'No they won't,' Asuka corrected calmly, while Manjyome rolled his eyes.

'No wonder you haven't been promoted. What's the matter, forgotten already?'

'Uh...yes.'

'Using Tempester's special ability,' Judai explained, 'I can destroy a card on my field to prevent it from being destroyed.'

The two collided, and the face down card on Judai's field vanished to keep the Elemental Hero alive as the other was destroyed in a gust of smoke. A shrill cry pierced the air, but it seemed only Izumi could hear, and she covered her ears on instinct to block the sound before it faded as the card vanished into the graveyard.

'Next, I play the spell De-Fusion,' Judai continued. 'Separating Tempester into its pre-fusion form. Which means they can each attack you directly. Go!'

'You okay,' he asked concerned, seeing his opponent on a knee after the triple threat. 'That wasn't too much, was it?'

'Nah,' the other brushed it off, standing as Judai walked up to him. 'It was fine. Domo Arigato.' He bowed slightly.

'Ah, no problem.' The Orisis red brushed off the formalities. 'Just lighten up a bit. Ja mate ne.'

He waved at the other as he left, then came up to meet his friends. 'What did you guys think?'

The group exchanged a few banters about Judai's pretentions at being a sempai and the other's quickly scraped together deck as the frontier group split up, those not in Orisis returning to their respective dorms with an agreement to meet at the twins' dorm room the following morning.

It was only after the three were gone did Sho remember where he had seen the other's face. Giving a sudden exclamation, he shuffled through his bag before extracting a duelling magazine, opening it to a certain page before displaying it to those who remained.

'Edo Phoenix?' Asuka repeated, looking at the picture. 'Hey, you're right. It does look like him.'

The name, while familiar to the rest, was lost upon Judai. 'Who's he?'

Asuka face palmed her head again. 'He's the number one duellist in the world league. As in, a pro.'

'Then why was he duelling with leftover cards?' he wondered out loud. Then brushed it aside moments later. 'Ah, doesn't matter. That just makes me want to have a real match with him...'

* * *

**_Preview for the next chapter:_**

_'Aniki,' Sho whispered. 'Wake up.'_

_Judai, oblivious as usual, slept on, even as Chronos neared his desk. Sho turned, exasperated, only to find Takuya, who sat on his opposite side, asleep as well._

_Chronos, predictably, was not pleased. 'Drop-out!' he screeched. 'Spreading your incompetence like a disease! Detentions, all three of you.'_

_It was rather unfair, seeing as though Sho had only been trying to wake up his friend, but nothing could be said that would not get him into a deeper strife. He was rather fortunate that Judai at least, remained asleep, although the high-pitched yell had caused the other to stir._


	4. New School, New Classes

**Author's Note**

Hi again everyone. Just happened to have a free weekend miraculously. Everyone else was panicking about internals they left to the last minute. So I thought I'd take the opportunity to update a few things before I get flooded with last minute assessment and exam prep where updates will practically come to a standstill.

This chapter gives a bit more information to the Digimon side of the story, but everything won't be revealed till Chapter 29.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Digimon or Yu Gi Oh GX or any of the characters in either of them. All I own is my writing and my personal opinion. And the OCs mentioned. Which reminds me, take note that Riku's a player. Will show up again in another chapter, though I think he's mentioned there as opposed to physically appearing.

Enjoy, and please review. Constructive criticisms are welcome too, but if you send flames, I'm passing them over to one of my friends for ammunition. And you don't want to know what she blows up with them.

* * *

**Before the Seal is Broken**

After the second battle with Lucemon, the ten ancient spirits are sent to the real world and sealed in the cards. But when the seal stopping his rebirth begins to break, the Legendary Warriors must track down and liberate the spirits before the evil is released. But when their search leads them to Duel Academy, will school, new friends and both new and old enemies stand in the way?

* * *

**Chapter 4: New School, New Classes**

'Should we be having a meeting _here_?' Izumi asked, sitting on Kouji's bed between the said twin and Takuya. Tomoki had taken the spot on Kouji's pillow while Junpei had pulled over the desk chair and Kouichi was still asleep in his own bed, the covers pulled up to his chin and his almost black hair spilling onto the pillow into which his face was buried.

'It's the safest place,' Kouji shrugged. 'The rest of you all share a room with someone who doesn't know about the digital world. And we're quite likely to get caught outside.'

'But won't we wake Kouichi up?' Junpei asked.

The younger twin grinned evilly. 'Yeah. Then he'll be a zombie by lunch since he didn't sleep off the pill's effects.'

'You're mean.'

'Don't I know it.'

'Boys,' Izumi interjected, before Takuya and Kouji's discussion got too out of hand. 'Back to the agenda.'

'What agenda?' they both asked, a little louder than they should have with one of their members still asleep.

She face-palmed her head in disbelief. 'The spirit boys,' she grounded out, her own voice rising in level, unable to glare at both at the same time so having to settle for glaring at one, and then the other. 'Fairymon.'

'Oh, right,' Takuya said sheepishly as the blonde turned her glare to Kouji instead, who seemed rather unfazed. 'So, the human spirit of Wind.'

'It's not on the island anymore,' a rather annoyed voice mumbled from the other bed.

The others jumped a bit guiltily, save Kouji who had expected it, and to some extent, planned it, and Tomoki, who having not said anything, had nothing to be guilty about.

'We woke you?'

'Nah, ya think?' the other replied, a bit sarcastically though with the same kindness his voice always held so not to injure anyone, disentangling himself from the sheets before sitting up and swinging his feet to hang down over the side of his bed, rubbing his eyes with one hand, while the other rested on the pillow. 'At least Kouji didn't dump water on me this time...'

The other four snapped their heads around to stare at the younger twin, who smirked. 'Well, you weren't waking up Ni-san.'

'Those pills are-' He cut himself off with a yawn muffled behind a hand before continuing. 'Are supposed to last for ten hours. Normally, you wake me up af-' Another yawn punctured his statement. 'After eight. That time, four.'

'Oh, so that's why you didn't notice you were wet till three hours later. And then you didn't talk to me for a month after.'

'That's because I-' Another yawn. 'Got sick.'

'Oh.'

The other four were listening, quite amused, to the exchange, but after Kouichi finally got off his bed, stumbled slightly, and headed for the bathroom to freshen up, they got back on topic. And it was only when they did, did they remember the comment from the elder twin that had enlightened them to his awakening in the first place.

'We should have asked Kouichi what he meant when he said the spirit's not on the island anymore,' Junpei moaned, face-palming his head. 'Now we have to wait for him.'

'He's not a girl.' Kouji rolled his eyes. 'He'll be out soon. Besides, there's always the D-scanners.'

Ignoring Izumi's protest against the 'girl' comment and the whack on the head it elicited, the boys activated their compasses and searched for the spirit. Soon enough, it was quite obvious why the elder twin had said what he did.

'It's not showing up on radar,' Tomoki said, blinking at the empty screen. Their D-scanners had been upgraded, courtesy of the Celestial Digimon, and one of the newest functions was limiting the search function to a single signal, which really came in handy when looking for something, or someone, specific with too many dots clustering the screen. One of the down sides of this was that you could only track an individual spirit once it was either scanned, or the card it inhabited was known. Otherwise, the D-scanners only gave a very general location, unless the spirit was close enough for the apparatus to react.

Hence the reason the five found themselves on square two.

The five groaned when they came to this realisation, only to jump when the door opened.

'Look on the bright side,' Kouichi laughed lightly, walking inside, having read their faces. 'At least it's not square one.'

Takuya, who had fallen off the bed in his haste, picked himself off the ground, hiding his blushing face due to the awkward position he had found himself in. Especially since Kaiba Seto was extremely sexist towards females and put them all in the Obelisk Dorm with miniskirts.

Only Kouichi had noticed, and he said nothing, closing the door behind him and sliding the pale blue pyjamas he held into a drawer, before setting about to tidy the bed, looking a bit more awake then before, though he still had to stifle a yawn. He was dressed in the same attire as usual, only the Obelisk blazer still hung from where he had left it yesterday, his own D-scanner in the pocket.

Izumi stared at the boy a moment, and then laughed. 'Oh Kouichi...'

He looked up.

'With that attire, you look exactly like you did in the Digital World,' she chortled. 'Only older of course, and with different colours. But-' She paused as the boy looked at her confused. '-that just makes you look even cuter!'

He blushed bright red as the other boys laughed. Till Izumi spoke again. 'I wouldn't be laughing Kouji,' she said. 'You have the same problem. Girls swarming you both on the first day?'

A pause. Then...

'Oh crap!' the younger twin exclaimed.

Takuya opened his mouth to comment, only to be cut off by Junpei. 'Guys, the spirit?'

'Oh yeah,' the flame user muttered dejectedly, not really too happy at being interrupted. 'Not really much we can do if it's gone.'

That particular comment caused Izumi to glare again. Understandable, Fairymon was a part of her, and it was tough to be so close only to be unable to reach it. But then again, the same thing had happened to Takuya as well, so of all people, he should understand.

'He'll be back,' Kouichi said over his shoulder, straightening his pillow before pulling the covers over it, the blush on both faces having faded mostly. 'He is a student here. Besides, he lost to Yuki-san.'

'So?' Takuya asked, not really getting it.

Kouji sighed. 'He's a pro Takuya,' he explained as though to a little child. 'He didn't use his real deck, which means he wasn't taking the match seriously. He was just testing him, but regardless, a loss is a loss, so he has to combat that with a victory, or else his reputation will go down the drain if the story leaks.'

The brunette scratched his head. 'I still don't get it.'

The younger twin groaned. 'Forget it Takuya.'

'So,' Junpei said. 'What now?'

A stomach grumbled on cue. 'Uhh...breakfast,' Takuya said hurriedly, covering the offending area.

The others laughed.

* * *

First class, after of course the awkward fan-girl reactions the twins received, though in all honestly they should have expected that, having gone through the same thing in middle school.

Regardless, the second years found themselves in first period, which was unfortunately Chronos' lesson. Which meant predictably, that a certain Orisis had fallen asleep.

Actually, make that two.

'Aniki,' Sho whispered. 'Wake up.'

Judai, oblivious as usual, slept on, even as Chronos neared his desk. Sho turned, exasperated, only to find Takuya, who sat on his opposite side, asleep as well.

Chronos, predictably, was not pleased. 'Drop-out!' he screeched. 'Spreading your incompetence like a disease! Detentions, all three of you.'

It was rather unfair, seeing as though Sho had only been trying to wake up his friend, but nothing could be said that would not get him into a deeper strife. He was rather fortunate that Judai at least, remained asleep, although the high-pitched yell had caused the other to stir.

'Huh?' Takuya blinked, staring up at the teacher. 'Uhh...Gomen teach.'

The said teacher growled. 'Detention,' he grounded out again, before turning his back on the Orisis Reds he deemed an embarrassment to the school.

The twins in the back row snickered quietly; actually, Kouji snickered, though a small smile was gracing Kouichi's face, which he hid behind his textbook. Izumi had no such inhibitions, and didn't bother hiding the wide grin that graced his face, even as Asuka groaned beside her at her fellow friend's antics.

The class, generally speaking, was quite used to Judai's sleeping habits, though all must admit that that in itself, or rather, the reaction it elicited from their teacher, certainly livened up their otherwise boring class.

Then Judai suddenly awoke, accidently bonking his companion on the head. Suffice to say, the class ended on a rather interesting note.

* * *

Gym was the next class, and a rather entertaining one, though not in the same aspects as the previous class. First order of business was changing into their gym clothes, which brought up rather unwelcoming memories for both Izumi and Takuya, a smirk for Kouji, and confusion on part of the elder twin.

'All right,' he sighed to his brother as they walked, once the other two had shot off in opposite directions to get changed in their respective changing rooms. 'What's the deal?'

'Long story short, we got tricked by some Toucanmon working for Ranamon who stole all our D-scanners save Izumi's who was changing at the time. She saw a shadow of one and screamed, and Takuya and Junpei barged in while-'

'I get the point,' the elder twin hurriedly cut off. Then he added as an afterthought, 'one of their more embarrassing memories.'

The younger shrugged as they neared the door. 'Good blackmail though.'

'Yeah,' a female voice agreed behind them. 'Blackmail always comes in handy.'

The two spun around, Kouji rather irritated that someone had been listening in on the conversation but neither really shocked. After all, the footsteps and shadows cast on the passage were obvious indicators that there were people behind them.

Though they both supposed it could have been far worse than two chatty Obelisk girls who happened to be both boy-crazy and good friends of Tenjoin Asuka.

* * *

They had eventually split into pairs to play tennis, doubles with the Obelisks pitted against the Orisis Reds, while the Ra Yellows distributed their pairs evenly in between. The twins, ever inseparable, were opposing an Orisis whose name was Nobuyuki Tetsuya, and Takuya who couldn't pass up the chance to challenge the younger twin.

Funnily enough, the four of them were equally matched. Kouji's fast reflexes and speed gave him the more frontal position, while Kouichi's sharp eyesight and grace of movement made him the ideal backup. In strategic planning, the both of them were well adept, though Kouichi had the upper hand when it came to pitting one brother against the other, a point which was proven after a ten minute chess game which had resulted in a broken title and a serious blow to the younger twin's pride.

While neither Orisis were up to the level when it came to strategic planning, Takuya's reflexes, thanks to both soccer and the Digital World, were on par with Kouji's, while Tetsuya, despite no-where on the other twin's level, was quite determined to win, especially since unlike the older twin, he had near professional experience in the sport. So between the three way conversation, Kouichi as usual preferring to listen on the sidelines rather than take an active part, the match proceeded with both teams almost neck to neck, with, miraculously in the view of both Kouichi and Tetsuya, once he discovered the rivalry which existed between the other two, without disaster, save a minor interruption.

On the other end of the tennis courts, the Makurada Junko and Hamaguchi Momoe were playing against their usual opponents, which happened to be Sho and Judai. However, unlike the previous year's tennis session, Asuka snagged a court far away from the quadruplet, between the edge of the courts and twins, pairing up with her dormmate and playing against Misawa Daichi and another Ra yellow second year introduced as Hiromasa Riku. That match proceeded with a tad bit more drama, with the Ra brunette immediately hitting on the Obelisk Transfer, until the four on the other court caught on, both twins looking none too thrilled but settling for glares as Takuya took more proactive action. Luckily, their teacher, Ayukawa-sensei, was, through the duration the Orisis brunette got his point across to the other, was elsewhere occupied, thanks to one of the many misplayed hits of Judai's, this one of which strayed a little too much to the side and wound up striking a passing Obelisk first year on the head.

* * *

Meanwhile, Junpei was not so lucky, having wound up with a double Chronos-sensei lesson, in which the said teacher was venting his frustrations over the earlier period on all the unfortunate Orisis' in the class. Fortunately, Junpei was not one of those, though the constant screams and issued detentions resulted in a far from productive period.

* * *

Most certainly not how he had intended to spend his first day.

Tomoki was luckier, having art with the Ra Yellow dorm master. Though his attention kept straying from the paint splattered paper in front of him to other things. Namely the spirits they were searching for.

It had been quite a shock when Ophanimon's second call had appeared in the middle of his birthday party, in which he had, of course, invited his friends to celebrate the occasion with him and his family. Needless to say, his fourteenth birthday had been a memorial one. The holy angel felt bad as to having interrupted the occasion with a mistimed cross-dimensional message, so upon her insistence, the six wound up celebrating at Seraphimon's castle in the Forest Kingdom, which resulted in quite a few tearful reunions, and a few introductions between those who had, till then, never met.

Luckily time ran slower in the Digital World, as it was well past midnight when Ophanimon managed to reveal the reason she had called the ex-warriors again in the first place.

That the seal stopping Lucemon's rebirth was beginning to crack.

She explained how the defence mechanism which had originally fashioned the shield, had triggered the spirits to be released into the real world, seeing as though the containment vessel was located on earth as opposed to the digital plane, a revelation which had shocked the six speechless for a few precious minutes before Cherubimon had proceeded to explain the reason why. Other explanations soon followed, and the task was laid out. The six had to track down and liberate the ten legendary warriors in order to defeat Lucemon again, and hopefully for good.

They had more to go on than the first time, for which they were all grateful. The spirits were housed in duel monster cards, seeing as they were the objects linked to cross-dimensional planes to an extent far greater than any other object can. The annoying part was the link between each and every one made it possible to them to transit locations, as they found out first hand after stumbling upon the human spirit of flame only to lose it again.

Unfortunately, the 'defeating him for good' part was the furthest off, seeing as all they had to go on with was a prophecy, courtesy of Baromon, of which no human or digimon aware of the said prophecy could make heads or tails of. Though they were certainly not going to forget it, engraved into their minds as the words were.

Even now, as he absentmindedly sketched a nose on a polar bear, he could hear the prophecy echoing in his ears.

And then there was the problem of Kouichi and duelling.

Not that he was a bad duellist; out of their team of six, he was probably the best. The problem was the consequences of losing, either the duel or just life-points in general were bad, though the duel was by far worse. At the beginning, it was rather daunting, his energy being drained with draining lifepoints, but all involved simply assumed it to be school stress or the likes, until a particularly intense duel landed him in the hospital. From that time, he resorted to duel simulations as opposed to the real thing, simply based on a hunch that duelling had some part to play, even as the others continued duelling with no problems, the six having taken up the past time about a year after their adventures in the digital world. The cause had however remained unknown till Seraphimon took care to enlighten them during their visit to the digital world.

The full explanation was extremely tedious, but in a nutshell, his life was tied to his life points. They hit zero, he dies.

Needless to say, they were all shocked. And Kouji especially had become extremely overprotective, though his concern was well founded, seeing as though, being in a duelling school, he didn't really have much choice but to duel.

Besides the fact that he would never let his friends and family take the full burden while he stood helpless. And that he could be impossibly stubborn when the need arose.

Tomoki blinked down at the paper as a bell shattered his thoughts.

'Huh?' he muttered to himself. 'Why in the world have I painted a polar bear in a forest?'

* * *

_**Preview for the following chapter:**_

_'You know, Judai-kun seems alot like you Kouichi,' Takuya commented once the three made their way back to the academy at their own pace._

_Kouichi just stared, leaving the younger twin to question the cognitive processes behind Einstein's brilliant deduction._

_'Well,' the other explained, using the same tone he had, by the other, repeatedly been subjected to. 'He'd do anything for his friends, and despite being...uh...what's the word?'_

_'Boisterous?' the elder twin supplied._

_'Yeah,' the brunette agreed. 'That. But the aura's you project are similar. I mean, you're quiet, but no-one'd call you weak. He just seems to-' He cut off suddenly as the twins failed to warn him of the door he had just ran in to._


	5. Musashibo BenkeiTyranno Kenzan Appears

**Author's Notes**

Sorry about the long wait...and not much to show for it too. The next one's more entertaining, we finally get a peak at Kouji's deck, and a certain someone too. This one's just based off episode 55 of GX.

Enjoy.

* * *

**Before the Seal is Broken**

After the second battle with Lucemon, the ten ancient spirits are sent to the real world and sealed in the cards. But when the seal stopping his rebirth begins to break, the Legendary Warriors must track down and liberate the spirits before the evil is released. But when their search leads them to Duel Academy, will school, new friends and both new and old enemies stand in the way?

* * *

**Chapter 5: Musashibo Benkei-Tyranno Kenzan Appears**

'Aargh,' Judai complained, dragging his load behind him. 'Why do we have to drag these duel disks half way across campus? And why is everyone losing them anyway?'

'Be grateful,' Takuya shrugged. 'Chronos isn't as bad as some of the teachers back home. I still haven't gotten over the boils from the last one.'

'Boils?' Sho questioned, with the air of wanting to know and yet not simultaneously.

The transfer caught the reaction; after all, he got it quite a lot with the elder of the two twins. 'You don't want to know,' he replied. 'Besides, not even Chronos can break my standing record.'

'Really?' the other brunette asked with interest. 'What's that?'

'Aniki,' Sho scolded, before Takuya could answer. Then in an undertone, he added to their companion. 'Don't tell him, you'll just make him determined to beat it.'

Takuya considered that, then shrugged. 'Good point.'

Then he stopped abruptly before he ran into Judai. 'Why'd you stop?'

Judai, instead of answering, turned to Sho. 'Where's your duel disk?'

'Um...well,' he spluttered. 'I...lost it.' He didn't sound very convincing though.

'You and everyone.' Luckily, Judai hadn't noticed. 'Why is everyone losing them?'

'Well...I heard this rumour.' Takuya hid a grin; this sounded familiar.

And he was right, once Judai managed to catch on and wheedle the confession out of his surrogate younger brother.

And once that was out, it was time to hunt down the prey and deal a defeat in the 100th duel, similarly as Minamot Yoshitsune did to Musashibo Benkei in the 1000th fight.

After all, the duel disk _is_ the sword of a duellist.

* * *

'Can I move now?' Kouji complained after about ten minutes of standing in the same position. The twins were in the forest, taking the free Sunday morning to chat, laugh at Takuya's early detention, and for the older twin, draw a sketch or too in the sunny weather.

'Iie,' came Kouichi's reply, in melody with the music of the wind and the singing of the trees as his pencil flew across the paper, as it did when he wasn't paying attention to his own words.

'How much longer?'

'Five minutes at the most.'

'How long does it take to draw me,' he wondered aloud. 'I look exactly like you. Save the obvious differences,' he amended after a pause.

'I'm not drawing you,' the elder laughed, looking up from the sketchbook that rested on his knees, trading the 2B pencil for a 6B one. 'I'm drawing the tree behind you.' He added a few more lines, before setting the thicker pencil down as well. 'There, done.'

Just in time it appeared, as Kouji toppled over. 'Then why did I have to stand there for?' he wailed, rather comically and in a manner that he only would when the two were alone, as they were now.

Kouichi laughed again. 'I drew you first,' he explained, showing the sketch. 'And I can't draw the tree behind you if it's not behind you.'

'Certainly enjoying Takuya's gift.'

'Yours still takes first place,' the other assured. 'Though it was rather funny when he dragged the set to my apartment with the umbrella in his other hand. Talk about a wet birthday, it was pouring outside.'

They shared a laugh at the memory of their thirteenth birthday at their mother's apartment.

Then Kouichi pulled out the colour pencils and began to shade the leaves.

* * *

They arrive at the bridge in record time, mostly due to Judai's enthusiasm, which is none too quenched by seeing the Ra yellow duellist standing guard in the centre, duel disks, the price of his victory, in bags by his feet and surrounded by other not-so-familiar faces.

'Amazing,' Sho breathed, who had a fondness of such parallels. 'Really like Musashibo Benkei from the legend.'

Judai grins. 'Ichinenbo Benkei then,' he challenges. 'Let's duel.'

'It's Tyranno Kenzan,' "Benkei" shot back, slightly annoyed.

The brunette just shrugs nonchalantly, before repeating the phrase, riling up those who surrounded the other.

'Who are they?' Sho wondered aloud.

'The leading group with the image of Tyranno and his reputation,' a tall, lanky second year shot back. 'We're Tyranno Don. Tyranno's Group.'

'Why does this remind me of Ranamon?' Takuya muttered under his breath, but it went unheard as Judai simply renewed the challenge, not really caring about the arrogant behaviour even as Sho beside him was getting riled up.

'Not until you introduce yourself in return,' the other replied.

'Whoops.' Judai grinned sheepishly. 'Guess I forgot. I'm Yuki Judai.'

Surprise showed on the other's face. 'The charisma of Duel Academy?'

'And a great Aniki!' Sho input, eyes burning with passion, so fierce that both Takuya and Judai, flanking him on either side, could feel the heat, as well as the group on the bridge.

'Well...' Kenzan cracked his knuckles. 'This is my chance to take that title.'

'Aniki will beat you, no problem!'

The two glared at each other, which made the remaining two Orisis Red's simply look at each other, in amazement in Takuya's case, before Judai shrugged and activated his duel disk.

'Come on Ichinenbo Benkei. Start the duel.'

'I already told you! It's Kenzan!'

'Is this normal?' Takuya wondered out loud. Things weren't nearly this crazy when he was involved.

No-one answered him, the bluenette at his elbow simply dragging him away by the sleeve, clearing enough space for a duelling field as Kenzan took the opposite bank.

'Duel!'

* * *

'Ni-san,' Kouji said, after a short pause.

'Hai?' the other returned, still absorbed in his colouring.

'Do you know about the promotion duels?'

He gave his brother an odd look. 'Of course. The written exam, and then the field-' His eyes suddenly widened in understanding. 'Oh. The practical.'

'Yeah, the practical.'

He sighed through his teeth, switching green for brown. 'Kouji, we agreed back home that all academic related duelling like that would continue, remember? It was recreational duels and life-threatening ones that could be avoided that would be turned down. I can't expect to stay here if I skip out on an examination.'

'It would have been better if you stayed home.' Kouji repeated the old argument. 'It would have made more sense for one of us to stay behind anyway.'

He looked up, discarding the pencil, his voice have a darker undertone than it usually held as he replied. 'Kouji, the digital-gate focuses around the energy of our spirits. Digimon entering into the human world show up where that concentration is strongest, because that's the easiest point to breech. It wouldn't have mattered if one of us stayed back, because since the rest are here, as well as some spirits we haven't found yet, the Digimon _will_ be showing up on the island. And you _know_ I'd detest being stuck away from the action when my _family_ and _friends_ are fighting it.'

Kouji held up his hands in surrender. 'All right, I get it. It was a hopeless cause from the start.'

'Which was about two years back,' Kouichi sighed, recovering his usual, gentle tone and the pencil he had cast aside.

'I annoyed you, didn't I?' Kouji asked, not deaf to the transitional tone.

The other paused for a moment, before replying. 'Yeah, you did. It makes me feel like a liability.'

'I'm sorry.'

He waved the apology off. 'You're just concerned. That's not a crime.'

'Until I drive you crazy by it.'

'Which is supposed to be my job in any case, _ototo-chan_.'

'Hey!'

A shrug. 'You call me "Ni-san".'

'That's different!'

'Pray tell how.'

'Um-' Luckily, he was spared from having to answer by a sudden explosion somewhere towards the edge of the forest.

'What was that?' Kouji wondered, looking towards the forest, before heading that way himself.

'Hey, wait up,' Kouichi called after him, standing and letting the pad on his knees spill to the floor. He stopped to pick it up, then remembered the stuff he had brought with him, expecting an eventless morning. 'On second thought, never mind.'

* * *

'Would you stop that!' Sho cried suddenly, after the collection of Ra yellow grated his nerves too far. 'Aniki, make sure you win!'

'Sure thing Sho,' Judai said, grinning and taking his turn. E-Hero Featherman stared up at him from his card, and he considered the others in his hand, before swapping the hero for Monster Reincarnation.

'Trying to get back E-Hero Wildman?' Kenzan asked.

'That comes as a bonus,' the other explained. 'But by sending E-Hero Darkman to the cemetery, I can summon a level 5 or higher E-Hero from my hand without tribute, so now I can summon E-Hero Edgeman.'

The sun bounced off the golden skin as he stood straight, before attacking the opposing Dark Triceratops when opened, easily cutting through the flesh and reducing the other's life points as the prehistoric dinosaur exploded.

Judai: 3200

Kenzan: 3800

'Awesome Aniki!' Sho cheered. Then he turned back to Tyranno's group. 'See,' he mocked, sticking his tongue out at them. 'See how cool my Aniki is?'

The group looked at each other, before taking up their cheer with a new vigour. 'Don't mind Kenzan! Don't mind Kenzan!'

Kenzan looked at them with appreciation. 'Reminds me of when I first entered Duel Academy,' he mused out loud. 'Obelisk Blue was the best, and I had my heart set on entering it...'

'Am I the only one here who's sane?' Judai wondered out loud, looking at the argument in progress between Tyranno Don and Judai Don, the latter of which consisted of Sho alone, and beside them, Tyranno Kenzan absorbed in a one-man conversation.

'Forgotten about me?' Takuya muttered.

'That would be a first,' another voice joined them, soon followed by the owner.

'Kouji!' The brunette exclaimed. 'What are you doing here?'

'Wondering which idiot started a firework display.'

Takuya simply grinned at his friend's sarcastic remark, before turning his attention back to the duel, where Kenzan was in the middle of a monologue.

'You've got to be kidding,' Kouji groaned. 'What sort of idiot thinks out loud?'

'Quite a few,' the other said, unfazed.

'Shows how crazy the world is.'

'Or maybe how crazy we are,' Kouichi piped up from behind them, carrying his sketchbook and pencils. 'After all, "crazy" is in the eye of the beholder.'

'Isn't it beauty?'

'It's versatile.'

'That makes sense.'

'Really?'

'Nope.'

They turned their attention back to the duel, where another not-exactly-civil conversation was taking place.

* * *

'I win,' Kenzan smirked, crossing his arms, before gaping at his opponent still standing.

Judai: 100

Kenzan: 3800

'What? How do you still have life points left?'

'Insurance,' Judai grinned, gesturing at the open face down card. 'It's effect sends a face down back to my hand. And when Insurance returns to my hand, I gain 500 life points.'

'But it's still on the field?' Takuya said confused, looking from one twin to the other.

Kouji rolled his eyes in response, causing Kouichi to smile slightly. 'Listen,' he advised, before turning back to the field, where evidently Kenzan had asked the same question and was now receiving the answer.

'I had two Insurance cards.'

Kenzan looked impressed. 'Smart play.'

Kouichi grinned at his brother. 'What was that you said about incompetent goggle heads before?'

'Oh shut it,' the younger twin grumbled. 'He's still just as reckless, just as-'

'Should I take that as a compliment or an insult?' Takuya interjected, grinning at the sibling snippet. It was always entertaining watching the twins tease one another; sometimes, it looked as though they were making up for ten lost years.

'Guys,' Kouichi interrupted, 'you're going to miss the ending,' gesturing towards E-Hero WildWingman destroying Dark Tyranno with an additional boost from Skyscraper, followed by a direct attack from Edgeman.'

'How?' Takuya asked. 'He's still got lifepoints left.

'And Yuki-san still has a card.'

Kouji examined his face. 'Looks like a battle ender.'

Which was verified when Judai flipped Defusion.

* * *

That play resulted in Judai's victory, which in the end only Kenzan himself didn't expect. But it was an eye-opener for him all the same, as he found a new meaning of victory and a new big brother, and in the end, only Kouji was annoyed about the waste of time.

'Nothing,' he muttered, as the others trooped off to the Orisis dorm, fixating his D-scanner with a glare.

'They're plenty of students at the Academy,' Kouichi consoled. 'And there is the card shop too. Another spirit will be around here somewhere, and if we keep watching as much students duelling as possible, we'll eventually stumble upon them.'

'It's not exactly a foolproof method.'

The other simply shrugged. 'What else do we have? The scanners aren't specific, so we can't accurately pinpoint their locations.'

Kouji didn't answer, simply crossing the bridge.

'Come on.'

The other two followed.

* * *

'You know, Judai-kun seems alot like you Kouichi,' Takuya commented once the three made their way back to the academy at their own pace.

Kouichi just stared, leaving the younger twin to question the cognitive processes behind Einstein's brilliant deduction.

'Well,' the other explained, using the same tone he had, by the other, repeatedly been subjected to. 'He'd do anything for his friends, and despite being...uh...what's the word?'

'Boisterous?' the elder twin supplied.

'Yeah,' the brunette agreed. 'That. But the aura's you project are similar. I mean, you're quiet, but no-one'd call you weak. He just seems to-' He cut off suddenly as the twins failed to warn him of the door he had just ran in to.

'You guys could have warned me,' as the younger twin snickered and the elder looked a little apologetic.

'That wouldn't have happened if you were going to your own dorm.'

He blinked, staring at the blue and white coated Obelisk dorm. 'My bad.'

Then he waved a goodbye and left, with Kouji shaking his head. 'That gogglehead.'

'He was wrong about one thing though,' Kouichi said, pushing the doors open.

'He's wrong about a lot of things. But what did you mean?'

'About no-one calling me weak. Forgotten Hisaku-san?'

The younger twin made a face. 'Why bother with the honorific?' he grumbled. 'He doesn't deserve your respect.'

'You're too judgemental Kouji,' the other laughed.

'Yeah?' the warrior of light retorted. 'Well you're too damn merciful.'

They grinned at each other. 'Must be the spirits.'

'Yeah, must be.'

* * *

Takuya arrived at his dorm to find chaos. Literally.

'What's going on here?' he wondered, staring at Sho and Kenzan who were nose to nose, and Judai who looked a little exasperated while Manjyome simply lounged on the top bunk.

'Kenzan wants to move in,' Judai explained. 'And Sho's not too thrilled.'

He looked around, taking in the pots, pans and other stuff. 'Where's he going to sleep?' he wondered. 'All the bunks, and the roll-out are taken.'

Judai shrugged. 'The top bunk. We'll just kick Manjyome off.'

'It's sanda,' the said black-haired duellist yelled, making to get up, only to hit his head on the ceiling and letting loose a string of curses.

'At times like this, I'm glad the rollout hasn't got a ceiling,' the warrior of flame muttered, sweat-dropping as Sho and Kenzan continued yelling at each other.

'Are we ever going to lunch?'

'Ah, let's just leave them.'

After all, nothing could keep Judai away from his food.

* * *

_**Preview for the next chapter:**_

_ 'Well,' a voice hissed suddenly, next to his ear. 'You weren't who I was expecting, but it doesn't really matter.'_

_Kouji whipped around quickly. 'Who's there?'_

_ 'Over here,' the same voice purred, prompting the light warrior to activate his duel disk and use the light shed to eye the cloaked stranger._

_ 'Who are you?' he asked, eyes narrowing._

_ 'No-one you need to be concerned with yet,' the other said calmly. 'But I'll be the one who'll be taking your spirits. And then I'll be after my original target.'_

_ 'My spirits?' He gritted his teeth. 'And who was your original target.'_

_ 'Oh I'm sure you know. The one who gave us _both_ the slip.'_

Kouichi, you are _dead_ when I get my hands on you!


	6. Duel of Light in the Shadowed Dorm

**Author's Notes**

Apparently the remaining students who got sucked into the Shadow Realm in season 1 were released after Judai's duel with Kagemaru, but it's not mentioned till season 4. Because this series will branch out into an AU, I'm choosing to ignore that point because it's necessary in the sequel (provided I still remember after all the chapters for this fic are written). So Fubuki is the only one who has returned and the Abandoned Dorm is still off limits.

Sorry for the long lapse in updating. The chapter was looking too long so I did the shorter stuff and just never got around to it...

Enjoy.

* * *

**Before the Seal is Broken**

After the second battle with Lucemon, the ten ancient spirits are sent to the real world and sealed in the cards. But when the seal stopping his rebirth begins to break, the Legendary Warriors must track down and liberate the spirits before the evil is released. But when their search leads them to Duel Academy, will school, new friends and both new and old enemies stand in the way?

* * *

**Chapter 6 – Duel of Light in the Shadowed Dorm**

'Thank goodness it's the weekend,' Kouji muttered, casting off his blazer and throwing it haphazardly onto his bed.

Kouichi grinned at him, hanging his own behind the door and catching the other's on reflex as he swiped the clothing at him. 'C'mon Kouji,' he teased. 'Is this coming from the guy who has at least three different martial arts classes to go to in a week and doesn't get his "weekend" till five on Saturday.'

'Today is Saturday,' the other deadpanned.

'But no martial arts.'

'Worried you're going to get out of shape?'

Kouji gave his brother a look. 'If that were the case, you'd be a heap of blubber right now.'

That did it. The elder twin collapsed on his bed, shaking with laughter.

'It wasn't that funny.'

'Me? A heap of blubber?' Kouichi, contrarily, chortled. The next part was mostly incoherent, but there was someone about "scrawny" in there that the other managed to pick up.

'Seriously Ni-san, you're the only person I know who believes _and_ laughs at the stuff others use to bully you.'

'Sticks and stones,' the other replied cheerfully, rather pink in the cheeks especially.

'You're not sleeping,' Kouji said, changing the subject…somewhat.

'I'm not sparring,' he countered, rolling over onto his stomach to look at his brother the right way up. 'And please don't tell me you're going to go running around campus. You already did that this morning.'

'It's jogging,' the other faux-sniffed.

'What's wrong with just plain old walking?' Kouichi asked the floor. 'You take in a whole lot less rushing past.'

'You have got to be the only person I know who can walk past the same thing for thirteen years and still not get bored.' The younger twin shook his head before fixing his ponytail.

'Don't be ridiculous Kouji,' the other replied easily. 'Things change, and as for walking here, we haven't seen the entire island _once_, let alone…'

'You're hopeless at mental arithmetic.' But Kouji cracked a grin as the other attempted to work out the schematics, looking like he was itching for a pencil. 'It's six days a week, twice a day, and that's for school only. Three schools: elementary, junior high and senior high, then there's shopping, just plain old wandering out-'

'The parks,' Kouichi added. 'Looking for you, and then visiting all over the place. But we're talking about the island. There's plenty to walk past, plenty to see. Win, win situation.'

'Is this your way of asking for a walk?'

Kouichi rolled over again. 'Do I look like Hikaru?' he asked with an almost straight face, though the muscle twitching in his cheek gave him away.

'What's gotten in to you today?' Kouji asked, before crossing over to retrieve his blazer. 'All right, let's go. It's not like there's any homework to do.'

'Oh good,' Kouichi said cheerfully, bouncing up. After the last class they had had, Duel History, he was both wide awake and bored out of his mind. Awake because the class was so boring he needed to focus quite hard to absorb anything, and bored because it was so…well, boring.

'You know,' Kouji muttered, contraire to the elder twin. 'I feel kind of sleepy still…' He had managed to nod off beside Takuya before the end of the double.

'No way,' the elder twin said immediately, seizing his brother with one hand and his blazer with the other, promptly dragging them both out the door.

'You do realise you're going to be up all night-'

* * *

'I think we're lost,' Kouji frowned, an hour or so later, glaring at his map. 'Either that or we accidently wandered onto the wrong path and to a part of the island that is off limits to students.'

Kouichi peeked over his brother's shoulder, but he always had a bit of a problem reading maps and abandoned the idea. 'What makes you say that?' he asked instead. 'All that's here is a bunch of trees and a gate and…' He stopped talking suddenly.

'What?'

'I think I see someone there.' He narrowed his eyes slightly, picking out the slight glimmer of white and blue in the natural colours of green, brown, black and grey.

Kouji closed his eyes. 'Wulf, do you mind checking it out?'

A translucent wolf appeared at the boys' heels, before slinking off into the shadows, returning a few minutes later. 'Energy,' he replied. 'And a woman, a student, with a rose. Neither related.' He vanished as soon as he finished without another sound.

'Energy?' Kouichi repeated, pulling out his PDA and tapping it thoughtfully. 'How do you use this thing again?'

Kouji smirked at him before taking the device out of his hands, tapping it more successfully himself, pulling up a gridded screen, displaying a tomograph picking up Duel Energy in the immediate area. Part of the edge was rather red, more concentrated than they had seen, but still not the pure red they were looking for. Of course, the centre was, but that was due to the card they were carrying, still at a loss as to how to separate the human spirits of light and darkness from it.

Though it was possible that something was nearby, even if it was not a spirit. They knew that because Kouichi's D-scanner was still perfectly capable of blasting off their eardrums, even if all the others were now muted to avoid attraction. They'd decided not to bother attempting until it started beeping insistently; how would they know if they had succeeded or not? It was a good thing the screens flashed, otherwise they'd have to check their digivices at every moment to make sure they hadn't walked past a spirit by mistake.

Kouji sighed, as usual a little annoyed when he didn't understand something, snapping the screen shut and handing it back to his brother. 'Let's just go. This is Junpei's forte anyway.'

Kouichi ignored him, still looking at the gate that showed past the trees, then up a little at the derelict building which still held a form of newness about it despite evidently being abandoned for years.

'You're not going in there are you?' The younger twin asked as the elder took a few steps forward.

'There's something weird about that place,' the elder replied, contemplating. He couldn't quite place the feeling, except the fact that it felt familiar. Not exactly the type of place he'd run into the lap of, but it certainly sparked his curiosity which was far less better tamed than that of his brother's. 'Come on.'

He ran the next few paces and Kouji, muttering about something or other, followed him to the edge of the cover. Both of them were quiet…relatively, but while Kouichi was used to sneaking around, the younger twin lacked that subtlety that came with practice, and while in normal movement he was quiet fluid, he had hardly ever needed to take the care to disguise himself. Nor was he then. The sound of a twig being snapped sounded particularly loud though once they had stopped talking to each other, which elicited a shriek from the girl approaching adulthood as much as the twins themselves were.

The blonde scowled once she noted the source of the noise. 'This place is off limits,' she said, a little frostily, putting on the front that she was more than capable of taking care of herself and showing no embarrassment as to the contrary. 'You shouldn't be here.'

'We could say the same about you Tenjoin-san,' Kouji replied, dusting off the leaves that had gotten stuck in his hair as his brother took a closer look at the gate, not paying particular attention to the conversation going on to the side. The younger twin however raised an eyebrow at the rose.

Asuka followed the gaze, then sighed, moving a little away. 'I take it you haven't heard the rumours then,' she said, giving the red flower a half glance before looking almost thoughtfully up at the building. 'Two years ago, a group of Duel Academia's top students disappeared here. Of them, only one was found again, towards the middle of last year. Ten or so students are still missing.'

The piercing blue eyes met hazel for a moment before the latter turned away. 'Shadow Games have been played in there,' she added. 'That's no place to full around.'

The look she gave the other Obelisk said that she plainly expected him to scoff or at the very least, disagree. However, he surprised her by simply nodding curtly and turning to his brother, who was touching the wall gently with two fingers and looking like he was trying to remember something.

'Ni-san,' Kouji said sharply.

'In a sec,' the other replied distractedly, but the younger twin decided not to wait for that, grabbing the other's wrist instead. 'Hey.' There was pause, and then: 'lost it.'

'Didn't you hear what Tenjoin-san said?' Kouji asked him. 'People disappeared there.'

Kouichi looked back at the building, then at the pair. 'No,' he confessed. 'Truth be told, I wasn't listening.' He looked like he was going to say something else, but changed his mind.

'Don't tell me you were thinking of going in?'

At the shaking of his twin's head, he sighed in relief.

The blonde raised an eyebrow at the pair. 'I'm surprised you accepted that so easily,' she confessed. 'The last time I told someone, they said it was just a whole bunch of rumours and hearsay.' She shrugged it off though; it wasn't all that important. 'What brought you two here anyway?'

'Walking,' Kouichi replied. 'I guess we…got lost?' It sounded rather like a question.

'Somewhat,' Kouji admitted, though sounding a little grumpy now. 'I won't say it wasn't interesting though.'

* * *

That night, after Kouji had turned off the light and fallen asleep, Kouichi stared up at the ceiling. The Abandoned Dorm was nagging him. They'd gotten more details from Takuya who'd gotten them from Judai (how he'd known to ask, the elder twin had no idea but suspected his brother's curiosity acting; they really were a pair of curios cats when the need arose) who'd…well, gotten them from first-hand experience. Though he was surprised Kouji had been so quick to believe; he supposed it was something to do with the conversation he had paid no attention to.

After about half an hour, he sighed and sat up, still wide awake. It was one of those "phases" where he was skipping out on his sleeping tablets to prevent nasty side-effects from coming into play; there was no point trying to curb an addiction, as he was rather nocturnal. Must have been an owl in his past life, however that didn't help the fact that he was still wide awake. Luckily he could pull an all-nighter and still have enough energy to go on the next day, but he mostly needed to compensate with napping during the day and relying, rather unfortunately, on the rubbery-tasting tablets.

However he couldn't do either, and the Abandoned Dorm and the familiar feel to it amidst its unfamiliarity spurred him to put the urge to pace or walk to some good use.

He scribbled a note first. His brother had a habit of panicking when he vanished.

* * *

Kouji couldn't quite place what woke him up. One minute he was fast asleep, and the next, he was scowling at the shadow of his brother's bed across from him. Kouichi normally didn't wake him up during the night, and it had been years since he had last had a rather vocal nightmare, and he wasn't even in the-

The younger twin almost fell out of bed as he realised his brother was no-where to be found. A quick flick of a light later and a slower sweep of the room, he found his brother's PDA and duel-disk on the table but the blazer and shoes missing.

And unfortunately, he had left absolutely no indication of where he was going. He double checked the desk, and his pockets to make sure. In the end, it was only his D-scanner, tracking the purple dot that was his brother's, and looking like to be near the abandoned dorm.

He didn't know whether to be worried about his brother being so close to something that could be potentially dangerous (students had gone missing and roped into Shadow Games, both very bad) or annoyed that the other had completely disregarded that.

Of course, he was doing rather the same thing as he shoved his hands into the sleeves of his blazer before clipping the duel disk to one arm.

* * *

Ten minutes later, he was trekking through the forest with the light on his mobile and duel-disk. He hadn't actually thought to bring his torch…if it was still there. There was the possibility Kouichi had borrowed it, but the other's night-vision was abnormally good. It probably had something to do with the spirits of darkness; they had affected him far more than the other spirits had affected their humans.

He wasn't quite at the dorm when he heard something and stopped.

'Ni-san?' he asked aloud, raising the arm with the duel disk to cast the light a little further. He frowned when there was no reply, save another shuffle.

He stopped walking, adjusting his stance.

'Well,' a voice hissed suddenly, near to his ear (not near enough to be hit with the reflexive swipe though). 'You weren't who I was expecting, but it doesn't really matter.'

Kouji whipped around quickly. 'Who's there?'

'Over here,' the same voice purred, prompting the light warrior to lower his duel disk and use the brighter light shed to eye the cloaked and masked stranger.

'Who are you?' he asked, eyes narrowing. 'Lion mask? Real mature.'

'No-one you need to be concerned with yet,' the other said calmly. 'But I'll be the one who'll be taking your spirits. And then I'll be after my original target.'

'My spirits?' He gritted his teeth. 'And who was your original target.'

'Oh I'm sure you know. The one who gave us both the slip.'

_Kouichi, you are dead when I get my hands on you!_

Though when he thought about it, it was probably better than _Kouichi_ being the one to duel. But he didn't particularly like having to duel halfway through the night when he _should_ be sleeping.

The cloak flew back, revealing some sort of armour along with a custom made duel disk, fired up to go.

'Duel!'

* * *

Kouichi touched the wall with his fingertips, withdrawing them when he felt a slight tingling. He was right; it was definitely familiar, a creepy sort of familiar actually, but he was having a lot of trouble remembering exactly where.

The "keep out" sign was lying haphazardly on the ground and he considered stepping over it…for about two seconds. He figured though there must be a good reason for the sign to be there in the first place. People disappearing, shadows…

It suddenly clicked and he jerked back, eyes wide as he stared at the place.

_No way…_

For another few minutes, he just gaped at the building. Then he pulled out his D-scanner as something else clicked. If there was dark energy, like that amassed within the core of the Digital World, then that meant there was a gate, or the potential for one. That was what Cherubimon had told them anyway.

But the D-scanners, who should be able to pick it up, saw no such gate. It did however see a blinking blue dot which was a lot closer than it should have been.

* * *

'Go on first,' the lion-masked man said, rather arrogantly.

'Don't mind if I do,' the other snapped back, drawing a card before giving his hand a critical glance. 'I summon Lightlord Druid Aurkus in defence mode, and due to his special ability, no Lightlord can be targeted by effects.'

The metallic light creature appeared, sitting on its card with arm-like appendages held in front of him as a defence.

'Next, I activate the continuous magic card Justice World, then two cards face down to end my turn.'

'I draw then.' But the other was interrupted.

'Not yet,' Kouji said, smirking. 'I guess you're not familiar with the milling effect of Lightlords. At each end phase I need to send two cards from my deck to the graveyard.' He picked up two cards, before his smirk turned into an all out grin. It was rare to get such a lucky discard, especially so early in the duel. 'I discard Lightlord Priest Jenis, whose ability deals 500 points of damage to you, and Lightlord Beast, Wulf-'

'Who has another annoying effect I presume.' Even beneath the mask, it was obvious he was scowling.

'Try he's special summoned to my field, and I'll chose to have him in attack mode.'

The grey wolf appeared in a flash of light and growled, showing off its 2100 attack points.

'Now can I take my turn.' The challenger was sounding rather annoyed. Well, that was what he got for picking such a ridiculous hour.

'Go ahead.' The rest of the statement remained unspoken but the message made it through anyway.

'I draw and play Ally of Justice Core-Destroy in attack mode. And his special ability-'

'-when battling a light attribute monster, allows it to be destroyed before damage calculation,' Kouji finished in a bored voice, thouh wondering why a monster so suited to combat _his_ deck was in that of someone trying to challenge his brother. 'Can you just get on with it?'

'A fitting justice for you over-zealous light,' the other snapped back. 'Attack that Wulf-'

'I activate Vanquishing Light and sacrifice Aurkus to destroy your Core-Destroy,' the warrior of light interrupted.

'Hmmph, fine. I'll end with two face-downs.' He did seem a little deflated though, but with the amateurish air of planning a trap.

'I'll go with Solar Recharge then, discarding Lightlord Shire from my hand, then drawing two cards from my deck and sending two more to the graveyard.' He drew, pleased to find an equip monster in the discarded pair, Lightlord Rapier. 'And I'll equip the monster I just discarded, my Rapier, to Wulf, giving it an addition 700 attack points, plus 200 from Justice World. Which, in case you don't know how to add either, is 3000.'

The opponent frowned, before reaching out to activate a trap. 'I play the trap-'

'Don't bother,' Kouji cut in…again. 'I play Royal Decree, which negates the effects of all traps on the field.'

'Is there anything else?' There was the sound of grinding teeth.

'Yes, as a matter of fact.' The blue eyes almost seemed to glow in the dim light. 'I summon Lightlord Magician Leila in attack mode, and thanks to Justice World, she gets 200 attack points too.'

'I play the quick-play magic card Command Silencer,' the other interrupted.

'I activate Leila's special effect,' Kouji sniffed, finding the guy rather easy to get into a hole with the help of his deck. It didn't leave all that much to chance. 'Switching her into defence mode in order to destroy your spell. Which leaves Wulf to attack directly.'

The opponent's life-points reduced to 500, and Kouji ended his turn by adding a face down card to his arsenal and discarding three due to Leila's effect.

It was at that point, when the other was about to draw his card, that he heard his brother.

'Kouji! Hey, Kouji!'

'It's about time you show up.' The nameless opponent was rather mad now, not only losing rather badly (unless he had something planned) but duelling the wrong person too.

'I'll second that,' Kouji said, though he had been more worried than mad. 'Where were you? And next time, leave a note!'

'I did.' Kouichi, in comparison, sounded a little exasperated. 'You must have knocked it under the desk or bed again.'

'Oh.' In that sheepish moment, he realised he had never checked the _floor_. 'Whoops.'

'Whoops,' the other deadpanned, giving the lion-clad man an odd look. 'Why are you duelling this late?'

'Because I have been sent to relieve you all of your spirits.'

Which were currently in Kouichi's inside blazer pocket.

'Can we just get on with it?' Kouji ordered bluntly. 'I'd like to get some more sleep you know.'

'You won't be needing it,' the other snapped, ignoring the mutter of overconfidence and drawing his next card. He had just the card he wanted too.

'I special summon Ally of Justice Cosmic Closer since you have two monsters on your field and at least one with a light attribute.'

'Bravo,' Kouji deadpanned. 'You can count.'

'You won't be so cocky after this,' the other spat, showing his next card. 'I normal summon Ally of Justice Unlimiter and sacrifice it to double the original attack points of my Cosmic Closer. And before you think your face down can do anything to bypass my laws of justice, I play Mystical Space Typhoon.'

'Justice?' Kouji asked, suppressing a rather undignified snort with some difficulty. 'I'd ask, but I don't like lectures on the weekend, so spare me.'

'Fine, attack.'

The monster slashed through Wulf, reducing Kouji's life points to 3600 without even a change of expression.

'Are you done?' Kouji sniffed, drawing his card without waiting for an answer. He already had the card in his hand to finish it, and thanks to that last attack, everything in his graveyard too. 'I switch Lightlord Leila to attack mode, then switch her again to defence to trigger her effect and destroy your final face-down.'

That left the monster alone on the field, his power-boost depleted after the end phase of the previous turn.

'Next, I'll sacrifice her to summon Lightlord Dragon Gragonis, whose special ability lets him gain 300 attack points for each Lightlord in my grave, along with the additional 300 attack points from Justice World. I hardly need those 3800 attack points to finish you off, do I?'

He folded his arms, glaring down his opponent who simply glared back, showing no give.

'How about telling us who you are? And how you know about the spirits.'

No answer.

'I give only to those who deserve justice in order to serve it. If I am defeated here, so be it, but someone will come in my stead to deliver judgement upon you abominations.'

'Hmmph, fine.'

Kouji declared his last attack and the dragon roared, unleashing a large gust of flame, bright enough for both twins to cover their eyes.

When the light and holographic smoke faded, the man was gone.

'That was weird.' Kouji came forward a few paces, casting the light from his duel disk around in case the other had snuck off into the trees. 'Wulf. Hey, Wulf? Go sniff him out.'

The wolf came back empty handed.

'You know,' Kouichi said thoughtfully as they trekked back to their dorm room. 'I'm sure that guy looked familiar.'

'How could he?' the other asked, yawning with no misgivings now that it was only his brother to bear witness. 'He was wearing that dumb lion mask that whole time, yakking about justice-'

'Justice is Power!' the elder twin suddenly exclaimed, stopping as abruptly.

'Excuse me?'

'I knew it seemed familiar. Oh why does it always take so long…'

'Mind cluing me in?'

'He looks like Duftmon,' Kouichi explained. 'He's one of the Royal Knights.'

'He's one of the _what_?'

* * *

_**Preview for the Next Chapter:**_

_ 'I don't think you understand at all,' Izumi said frostily, looking between the girl and her precious friends. 'Just because a person of the opposite gender is a friend, doesn't mean there's anything romantic or sexual about it.'_

_The girl just sniffed, before turning to glare at Asuka who was beside the other blonde. 'You're not the only one, but with all the boys attracted to blonde snobs like you, there's nothing left to us.'_

_ 'You know what, you just sound like a spoiled brat who's too used to getting her own way.'_


	7. A Girl of Strength – Descent to the Mist

**Author's Notes**

Finally got this chapter done. It really was snail steps with this, otherwise I would have used it for Camp Nano (not that the fic I did use got anywhere).

I'm also using the alternate names for Junpei's Watt deck archetype, because Elec- sounds a little bit of a mouthful (some cards like Eleckeeper only have the single translation available though). Same goes for some of Tomoki's cards, but that's not related directly to their archetype name. You'll also get to find out Izumi's and Tomoki's deck types in this chapter, although the latter isn't exactly duelling.

Also, I'm using Ananta's manga effect, since its TCG second effect isn't clear as to who's field is affected.

* * *

**Before the Seal is Broken**

**Chapter 7  
A Girl of Strength – Descent to the Mist Valley**

'This spa is the best,' Izumi sighed, tying her damp hair into a loose bun and sinking down to the chin into the warm water, letting her entire body soak it up. 'The schools are nothing like this back home. I could do this every Sunday…and weekdays as well.'

'The perks of being away from the rest of civilisation,' Asuka commented, leaving her own hair, only slightly shorter than the pseudo-Italian's, unbound. 'Peace and quiet, facilities we'd have to pay a regular fortune for…but it's worth it, after the competition to get a place here.'

'Si,' Izumi agreed. 'I'm amazed we all made it in; we had quite the argument about what we'd do if we didn't. The twins especially; Kouji's not the sort that'll let Kouichi out of his sight, and Kouichi's not the sort who'd want to hold Kouji back. Not that there was ever a problem with them though – oh, I'm blabbing.' She covered her mouth as Asuka laughed.

'They must be very good friends,' she commented. 'You seem to know them very well at least.'

'Well…sure.' The bun bounced a little as Izumi shrugged. 'We've been friends for years now and we've spent a lot of time together; it's sort of impossible not to know almost everything about them. Though they can surprise from time to time.'

'I imagine so.' Asuka looked over at her friends, enjoying the spa on its other end, where they could see the lake and the Obelisk boys on the other end. 'Momoe and Junko and I know each other from primary school, and they can still surprise me at times.'

Izumi looked over as well. 'You guys are pretty different,' she commented. 'How did you guys wind up being friends?'

Asuka laughed at that. 'Easy; they begged me to help them with their homework.'

'And you let?' Izumi knew what she would have said.

'They drag me out for much needed fun.' This time, it was the veteran Obelisk's turn to shrug. 'It's an odd sort of relationship; somewhat clichéd, but they're people I can talk to, you know?'

Izumi knew. Her friends were an odd mix after all.

'How about you?' Asuka asked. 'How is it having only boys as your best friends.'

'Awkward at times,' Izumi confessed. 'Mainly when some girl decides to be a bitch and doesn't realise there's more to friends than simply gender. And when we get into awkward discussions…and none of us have sisters either. Good thing there's Mama.' She said it the Italian way, and many a person would have done a double-take on that. Asuka, who knew enough Italian to pick up the earlier slip, didn't.

'Did you always live in Japan?' she asked instead. 'You have a bit of an accent.'

'Unfortunately,' Izumi sighed. 'No, I lived in Italy for a while. Born in Japan though; it's a bit of a long story. Funnily enough, my Italian's perfectly fluent. And my English is pretty good too. I guess it's the ages.'

'Guess so,' Asuka agreed. 'It is rare to hear accented Japanese. Accented English on the other hand…'

They both laughed at the heavy accent of their current English teacher. 'English in Italy is stronger,' Izumi laughed. 'I was having trouble understanding the accent when I came back.'

'Times are changing though; soon enough the English here will sound the same as the English in America.'

'Or Britain,' Izumi agreed. 'Your English is very good though; how come?'

'My brother was planning on going abroad to study in America,' Asuka confessed. 'You saw him right; the brunet almost every girl, including those two – ' She gestured at Momoe and Junko. ' – were chasing after.'

'Oh, yeah.' Izumi remembered. 'I think I was more caught up with the size of this island at the time.'

'Well, come on then.'

Izumi ducked as Asuka splashed her way over to the side, before popping up when she deemed it safe. 'A little warning would be nice,' she coughed.

'Gomen nasai,' Asuka apologised, wringing out her hair. 'But if we spend all of Sunday in here, you won't get to see the other sights at this Academia.'

Now that sounded interesting. 'Coming up then,' Izumi said, working on undoing her bun, now that its purpose had been nulled. 'Any way we can dry our hair out fast.'

'There's a blow dryer in the downstairs bathroom,' Asuka said.

'Ouch. Those things give me a headache.' But it was better than wondering around with a bird's nest.

* * *

Kouji knew well enough not to wake his brother, but it was disappointing that he would have to wait for the other's explanation. Kouichi had given him a brief run-down, but if the younger twin was perfectly honest with himself, all he remembered was something about the Royal Knights and a really fuzzy character he had been duelling. He had (hopefully) been awake enough for the duel, but his body had apparently decided to consider it as a walking dream.

Still, there was nothing to be done. Insomnia had kept Kouichi up all night, and he was now catching up on his sleep; it would be cruel to wake him prematurely, and it was Sunday so Kouichi could sleep in till noon if he wanted.

Sadly, by eleven Kouji had done everything he needed to do, and didn't fancy hanging around in the dorms doing nothing but tapping random buttons on his PDA.

'Yo,' Takuya's voice said suddenly, and Kouji noted in some surprise he'd unconsciously dialled the other's number. 'What's up?'

'Boredom,' Kouji deadpanned.

'Just wait till next week.' Takuya grinned. 'Judai-kun says the homework here's a nightmare.'

'I see you two have been getting friendly,' Kouji commented, noting the familiarity in the address.

'You could say that.' Takuya just shrugged. 'You know me.'

'I don't know how you manage to keep track of every person you manage to make friends with,' the younger twin sighed. 'But never mind that; what are you doing now?'

'Considering the tangent, should I take it you didn't mean to call me?' the brunet asked.

'Just answer the question Takuya.'

'Fine, fine.' Takuya thought for a moment. 'Everyone else's still sleeping, no matter how many times I wake them up. Except Sho-kun; he's cramming in the library. But Tomoki's here.'

There was a faint "hey Kouji" from the PDA.

'We're just playing snap.'

'With regular cards?'

'Nah, our decks.'

Kouji didn't see how that would work.

'Come over and we'll show you. It's a lot easier than normal snap, let me tell you.'

'Except when it'll come to sorting out which cards are who's,' Tomoki piped up.

Kouji didn't have anything better to do. 'Yeah, I'm coming.'

'And Kouichi?' Takuya asked, having reclaimed his PDA.

'He's still sleeping…and no, I didn't try to wake him.'

'I didn't say anything,' Takuya said innocently…and rather hurriedly.

* * *

'So, have you seen the Card Shop yet?' Asuka asked as Izumi dragged a comb through her hair, glad hers didn't have the annoying habit of fizzing up after getting soaked.

'No, not yet,' Izumi replied. 'Is it a good one? The one back home didn't have a whole lot of packs; we'd always have to wait until we went on day trips to grab some from the larger cities.'

Asuka, who lived pretty central as far as Tokyo went, hadn't experienced that particular annoyance. 'I think it's a good one,' she said. 'We get special deliveries from Kaiba corp, so there's more rare cards available here than any other game store in the country…except maybe Kame.'

'Motou Yugi's home-shop,' Izumi agreed. 'Yeah, that's true. Unless they print another copy of Blue Eyes White Dragon.'

'I imagine Kaiba Seto won't be allowing that in a hurry,' Asuka noted, remembering the history lessons they'd had on him.

Izumi shrugged, finally deeming her hair acceptable and cleaning out the comb. 'Can't blame a guy for wanting something to themselves…though I would think the rights to print go to Industrial Illusions.'

'No, they design the cards and sell the patents to Kaiba Corp,' Asuka explained. 'Though sometimes, like in the case of the Egyptian Gods for example, Industrial Illusion puts their own restrictions on them and distributes them separately to Kaiba Corp. Naturally, there are also other designer and gaming companies, but they're the main partnership…if you want to call it a partnership.'

'You know a lot about them,' Izumi said. 'Learn it all here?'

'Pretty much. Most of the focus here is on the duelling world after all.'

'Hah.' Asuka stared curiously at the pseudo-Italian, before realising she was scoffing over another thought. 'Takuya's father works in the industry, and _he_ doesn't get this stuff.' Izumi chuckled thereafter. 'Not that Takuya's exactly the scholary type.'

'Sounds a little like Judai,' Asuka commented. 'The sort to skip class?'

'No…but only because he's scared of his mother.' She groaned at the thought. 'Oh boy, he'd better not start skipping class now that he has a free reign. And if he corrupts Tomoki I'll –'

She put the comb into her drawer and cracked her knuckles.

'You can ask Pharaoh for help,' Asuka offered with a smile.

'Huh?' The comment caught Izumi off guard, thinking the other was talking about an Egyptian King. 'How would I do that?'

Realising the problem, Asuka amended: 'I meant Pharaoh the cat. He belonged to the old Orisis Dorm-Master and he still stays in the dorms, generally in Judai's room. Tome-san from the Card Shop looks after them now; I guess with all the staffing changes no-one remembered they no longer have a Dorm-Master.'

'Oh?' Izumi was interested. 'What? He just up and left his cat behind as well as his students?'

'Well, it wasn't like that exactly.'

Asuka sounded a little uncomfortable talking about it, so Izumi let it go. 'So how would Pharaoh help?'

That got a grin from the other blonde. 'Can you keep a secret?'

* * *

'This is ridiculous,' Kouji deadpanned, sitting on the floor of the Orisis Dorms with Takuya, Tomoki and a Junpei he'd picked up on his way. Their decks were scattered on the wooden floor, looking, at least to Kouji who was used to living in far better conditions (and even Kouichi's apartment, whose was the least well off out of all of them, was better than the Orisis dorms), as though they'd fall through the floor at any moment.

'Relax,' Tomoki said upon seeing the stare, sounding eerily like Takuya when he spoke. 'I think the floorboards would have broken when Kenzan-san jumps from the top bunk if they were going to break any time soon.'

'True enough,' Takuya agreed. 'Though how do you know that?'

'I can hear it from next door you know.'

Takuya shrugged; it could well be true enough; Kenzan was loud enough when awaking to knock him off the bed…if he wasn't already as low as he could go. And everyone (the old gang anyway) knew what he could sleep through.

He wasn't as bad as Kouichi though, for the simple fact that he wasn't taking sleeping pills.

'Snap,' Junpei said suddenly, swiping Takuya's level four Demon Beast of Burning Rock with his own Watt King Cobra of the same level. 'Finally, I get one.'

Kouji half grinned as he threw down his level two Lightlord Hunter Raiko. Tomoki went next, and drew Watershadow of the Ice Barrier.

'Snap,' he said, taking Kouji's canine.

'That card's a pain even when it's not with Wet Grasslands,' Koui sighed, surrendering the pair and falling into third place once again with Takuya heading with fifteen piles. 'Better than Takuya at least.'

'Hey,' Takuya protested, throwing down the equip spell Salamandra, which Junpei failed to match with Eleckeeper. Tomoki was next, drawing Strategist of the Ice Barrier, a level four monster which in no way matched with a normal trap.

Kouji however lucked out, getting Lightlord Monk Eileen and taking the somewhat larger pile, pulling him into a close first.

And by the time they had run out of cards, Junpei surprisingly (who had began with the fewest pairs of all of them) had managed to come out on top.

* * *

The sharp knock on the door almost made Judai fall out of bed. He'd been hearing mumbles in his dreams for a while, but hadn't payed them any heed. Knocking on the other hand was far more difficult to ignore and he got up, rubbing his eyes to answer it –

And promptly tripped over Takuya, who'd been spread on the floor playing with his friends.

'Oww,' he whined from the floor, as Kuriboh floated above his head. 'Why'd you trip me for?'

'You walk around with your eyes closed and that's bound to happen,' Kouji said easily, getting up himself as he was closer. Still, even he wasn't fast enough to stop the second round of banging, that ceased as he opened the door to reveal two blondes on the doorstep. Izumi naturally he knew, but he had forgotten the other girl's name.

Judai obviously knew though, as he waved, a little sheepishly from the ground. 'Hey Asuka.'

'Did you just wake up?' Asuka asked with a frown.

'Well…yeah.'

She sighed, and Izumi raised her eyebrows at Takuya. 'I was up,' he said defensively. 'See?'

He pointed at the mess of cards on the floor, which Tomoki was going through to pick up his Ice Barrier monsters. 'Hey,' he said suddenly, picking up Demon Beast of Ice Rock. 'I didn't know you had a water card in your deck Takuya.' He assumed it must be his, as it was a union card with Demon Beast of Burning Rock and it certainly wasn't his own.

'Union card,' Takuya replied, and Tomoki nodded. 'Bit harder to search for than the others, but it works.' He looked back towards the door as Kouji and Junpei tried to find their cards as well. 'What brings you two here?'

'We were wondering if you wanted the Duel Academia tour,' Asuka replied. 'And if Judai, Sho and Kenzan-kun wanted to join us.'

She blinked at the bunks, the middle of which was empty. 'Where is Sho?'

Judai blinked too.

'Library,' Takuya replied. 'Cramming for the promotion exams.'

'Well,' Izumi said with a smile. 'I'm sure you're relieved new students aren't eligible for this round of promotions.'

'Tell me about it. I _hate_ studying for tests. Don't mind the Orisis Dorms though.'

Kouji raised his brow. 'Seriously?' he asked sceptically.

'Sure, it's like a year long camp.'

'Wonder if you'll be singing the same tune at the end of the school ye –'

'Boys,' Izumi snapped as Judai escaped at the mention of tests, probably to freshen up, before groaning and shaking her head at Junpei, who grinned weakly back as he found his last stray Watt under a pile, its tip sticking out. 'You guys going to take long?'

'Probably not,' Kouji said, running through his deck. 'Yep, all here.' He put it back in his case as Takuya and Tomoki compared their Monster Reborn's, before Tomoki found the little sticker at the back of one that marked it as his own. Kouji's too were marked, but only with a white dot in the right hand corner (Kouchi's was black and the left hand one). Since their decks often got scrambled up when planning or just playing around, it was good foresight to have a way distinguishing the common cards. Although it didn't really matter if they had each other's cards; they were all valid after all. And Junpei's were all in sleeves, so it was only Takuya's which were unmarked. Though it was amazing how many times they forgot to check their marks until someone with a cooler head (typically one not a part of the mess) reminded them.

'Okay, done,' Takuya said a minute later, picking up the rest of his cards. 'Thank goodness for this mattress.'

'Can't you play with regular cards?' Izumi asked.

'Not really when there's four people,' Tomoki pointed out. 'Not enough cards to go around.'

'True enough.' She shrugged. 'Takuya's idea or yours?'

'Takuya's,' the first year promptly said.

'Hey,' the addressed brunet pouted as Judai came back and Kenzan finally stumbled down from the top bunk. 'What'd I do?'

'You're up late,' Judai commented to Kenzan.

'Never waste a man's rest day-saurus,' Kenzan replied.

* * *

'You guys haven't been to the general hotsprings, have you?' Judai asked. 'We normally head there in the afternoons.'

Izumi groaned. 'I was just in the spa at the Girls dorm,' she complained. 'Let's leave that part of the tour till last.'

That lead to a few complaints from Takuya and Junpei, as neither the Orisis Red nor the Ra Yellow boys dorms had spas.

Asuka shrugged. 'One of the perks of being an Obelisk,' she said. 'Though the Ra girls dorm has a smaller one too, or so I hear.'

'Speaking of,' Tomoki said suddenly. 'Why aren't there any girls in Orisis? Isn't that sexist?'

'Yeah, I was wondering about that,' Izumi said thoughtfully. 'The majority of the girls here are in Obelisk; do they all pay the extra fees or is it just easier for girls to get into Obelisk?'

'No, they either graduated from the prep school like I did or they pay the extra fees,' Asuka explained. 'Most of the girls here come from the prep school actually; it's more common for girls to attend than boys. Girls don't go to Orisis because the dorms aren't really appropriate for women to be living in all year around – unless you count Manjyoume's renovations, but that means there's a higher cut-off for their entry to Duel Academia so that their minimum is Ra Yellow. It's a bit of a bias that's come from the earlier tournaments, with there being so few well-known female duellists.'

'Then why build the dorms like that?' Izumi asked, a touch of anger in her voice. 'That's gender discrimination. Not to mention the lengths of these skirts.' She pointed at her own Obelisk uniform. 'Really, I'm surprised more girls don't wear tights underneath.'

'They are more low cut than the typical Japanese uniform,' Asuka allowed, 'but they're tight fitting instead of the flair; at least they won't ride up in the wind.'

'True,' the other assented, remembering all the times it had happened, much to her embarrassment, in the Digital World.

'Besides, we're all at least sixteen. I suppose Kaiba Seto thought the boys were mature enough to handle us. There's some leeway with the uniforms after all, and dating spots scattered about.'

'There are?' Judai, for some reason, seemed surprised.

'You should know,' Asuka sighed. 'You use half of them as snooze spots when you're skipping class.'

'I do?' The brunet scratched his head, and Asuka sighed.

* * *

'The beach is pretty noisy at this time of the year,' Asuka explained, pointing to the high tides where several specks were surfing. 'Especially when my brother's there.'

Junpei had a hard time hiding his snickers when Tomoki innocently asked why. Asuka wasn't quite as amused, but that was probably because of the times she had to deal with her brother's antics.

'A good portion of the girls go gaga over him,' the blonde sighed, pointing at the shoreline where many a girl in bikinis were watching in fascination. A few had surfboards under their arms by the looks of them, and presumably some had actually taken the further step. She stole a glance at her roommate, but nothing she'd seen so far implied Izumi would be one of those girls…and, much to her relief, she wasn't. At least there was another sane girl in a time of crisis.

'Looks like a nice beach though,' Takuya commented. 'Remember the – ouch!'

Kouji, who had stepped on his foot to attract attention, gave him a pointed look before gesturing at Asuka and Judai, and the brunet quickly shut up. Those two didn't know of the Digital World after all.

Luckily, the hazel look of suspicion was quickly diverted by Tomoki's chortle. 'That was when you and Junpei ran in on Izumi changing.'

Three bright faces greeted them, and Izumi growled a little in her throat. Kouji laughed as well.

'And when Takuya and Junpei took of their swimming trunks, forgetting that Izumi was there.'

Asuka covered her mouth and giggled; Judai had no such reservations and collapsed into full-blown laughter. Kenzan, having more experience with co-showers, managed to retain his dignity.

'Company-saurus,' he said suddenly, and everyone turned around to find a group of girls looking rather displeased.

Asuka sighed and mumbled something under her breath. Someone in the gaggle did the same, simply louder, and Izumi glared.

'If you've got something to say,' she snapped, ignoring the other blonde raising her arm in a motion of silence, 'just say it out loud.'

'That's hardly lady-like,' came the quiet reply, although the effect was somewhat dampened from the harsh voice it came from. 'But you wouldn't know much about that, would you?'

A black haired girl stepped forward, flicking the fringe away from her eyes and taking extra care not to smudge the eyeliner.

'Tell me she isn't another Ranamon,' Junpei whispered to Kouji.

Kouji just shrugged; he could say nothing of the sort, but with the adjustments to the Obelisk girls' uniform that made her arrogant form more noticeable, it was quite possible the girl really was like the warrior of water under Cherubimon's control.

'And how would you know?' The warrior of wind's voice was largely calm, but a perceptive person could pick out the slight tremor from insult.

Asuka cut in before the other could answer. 'There's no need to start a fight, Kanakawa-chan.'

Kanakawa sniffed. 'You would say that,' she said daintily. 'Choosing to spend quality time with the…' She paused, before her face twisted into a frown. '…roaches of the Orisis Red Dorm.' The smile melted back into a grin as she added: 'It seems even your skin is crying out for the horror of it all.'

Asuka resisted the urge to look at the parts of skin that showed in her uniform: the majority of her legs, the upper forearms and the face and front portion of her neck. She knew Kanakawa anyway; her snake deck was perfect for her venomous tongue.

Izumi's scowl became more pronounced; she was not as familiar as Asuka was, and even if she were such girls always managed to rub her the wrong way. 'I suppose you wouldn't know much about friends then,' she said, 'if you care that much about _material_ things.'

'I have friends.' The black haired girl smiled pleasantly, though a well-practised eye could pick out the falsity of it all. The tone though anyone could hear, clipped as it was. 'And at least my friends are female; I have to wonder how_ever_ you manage with so many males. After all, there is only one sort of "friendship" between a man and a woman, and I'll feel sorry for each and every one of them.'

'I don't think you understand at all,' Izumi said frostily, looking between the girl and her precious friends. 'Just because a person of the opposite gender is a friend, doesn't mean there's anything romantic or sexual about it.'

The girl just sniffed, before turning to glare at Asuka who was beside the other blonde. 'You're not the only one, but with all the boys attracted to blonde snobs like you, there's nothing left to us.'

'You know what, you just sound like a spoiled brat who's too used to getting her own way.' Izumi was glad she had brought her duel disk along with her, otherwise she might have resorted to her fists to do the fighting. 'This is a Duel Academy right? We fight with a duel!'

Kanakawa sniffed again. 'How unladylike,' she reiterated. 'However I have no problem with removing the dregs of our female society.'

'Just duel and spare me.'

The boys looked at each other. 'Aren't you going to stop her?' Sho asked, looking somewhat worried.

The four that knew Izumi best shook her head. 'That's like trying to stop the wind,' Kouji said. 'Quite literally, I might add.'

Only the legendary warriors understood the subtlety of that statement, though they all saw the metaphor.

* * *

Kouichi found himself up by noon, though it was so comfortable beneath the blankets he couldn't bother himself to get out of them for another half hour. When he did he shivered in the cold air, pulling his blazer on and finding the clouds hanging low in the sky.

'Rain,' he mumbled, rubbing at his eyes. The timing was interesting, at least, though he didn't care one way or another as to when it was. As long as he have to run to school in it he was fine…though…

He looked around. The door was locked and the curtains drawn, and Kouji's shoes and coat were gone. Which by extension meant that Kouji was gone. The pair of umbrellas they had were still by the door though, so it didn't look like he was prepared for the rain if he was outdoors.

He might not have been, but Kouichi thought he should ring anyway.

* * *

Tomoki was the first to notice the clouds, but little good it did them since both girls had already started their duel, hands drawn and the first turn ungraciously taken by Izumi. A moment later there was an avian on the field as well, attacked by a snake before being picked apart by another bird-like creature – and the cycle went on.

By the time the first splashes of rain fell upon his head he had lost count of how many monsters both sides had lost, but he thought they must be running short. Their life points sure were, though it was a sad truth that Kanakawa was currently 500 life points ahead of Izumi, at 700 and 200 LP respectively.

And yet it seemed as though nothing had happened. A monster was summoned, attacked, destroyed and summoned again. He knew Izumi's field was regenerating, with Divine Wind of Mist Valley in play, but it was limited to Mist Valley Falcon's current battle strength.

'Do you guys think Izumi's walking into a trap?' he asked suddenly, expecting Kouji, Junpei or Asuka to answer.

The latter two looked at each other, but the former was busy typing a message into his PDA and hadn't heard.

'Maybe,' Junpei said thoughtfully. 'While we know Izumi doesn't have any cards that really benefit from having monsters in the graveyard, we don't know if that other girl does or not.'

Asuka frowned. 'I think she does, but I don't remember –'

She was cut off as Kanakawa laughed.

* * *

Izumi's frowned deepened as her opponent laughed.

'What?' she snapped.

'It seems I've won after all,' Kanakawa replied. 'And it's a shame too; I thought you'd do a _little_ more than a frontal attack.'

Izumi's brow furrowed; she knew the tone, but she didn't _think_ she had walked into any traps…despite how it looked. Granted, her deck wasn't very responsive that day, as it often wasn't whenever she took a duel in anger or frustration.

It was times like that that made her rethink her deck structure, but for some reason she never fixed the problem. And it was a problem, because it hindered her more than it helped; she was a better duellist and fighter than this, she was sure. But just like the digital world, she could kick a rock and often just come away with a bruised toe.

And she could do better; there was no reason why wind was weaker than the other elements, and she had beaten Ranamon when Kouji had fought her and failed. But she would also recall in that tale that it was been two against one when Kouji had fought, and he had been injured at the time. And she had been stuck on the sidelines in the hardest battles: against Duskmon, against Cherubimon, against Lucemon…and even against Grottmon, because she had lost her spirit to the beast.

She never changed though – because she knew, just _knew_, that it wasn't her weapons that had to change. There was no reason Wind should be weaker than the rest, just as there had been no reason why the tainted Spirit of Darkness had crushed them so easily and yet become on par with them by the pure end. Which meant it was something in _her_ holding her back…

And yet, she knew the fights she chose were ones she would, and could, see to the end. And did as well, no matter how the beginnings were. And she could hear her friends on the sidelines, even over the sudden rain that assaulted her face –

And stopped as an umbrella appeared overheard. Izumi blinked, wiped her brow, and stared at Kouichi who was offering the handle to her.

'I'm duelling,' she said.

'I know,' he smiled, 'but I know you can manage.'

The umbrella, he meant, as he had Kouji's as well and therefore must have just arrived. But her other friends meant the duel when they said the same thing, even with Kanawata's laugh of victory.

Maybe an epiphany wouldn't be coming to her today, as she hoped every time her deck dragged her down before pulling her back up, but that wouldn't change the outcome in the end. As the lesser of two evils she could handle it – she always did, and maybe a part of her took it as a personal challenge, to always be at ends with the soul of her deck, for even two different paths could pull out a victory in the end.

Even if she couldn't pull out its full potential…

And Kanakawa called out her ace, the monster she could only summon by removing every reptile she had used so far from play.

'Seven precious little snakes,' the black-haired girl smiled, 'moving aside to make way for the Evil Dragon Ananta, who gains 600 life points for each stone that made her path.'

'4,200?' Junpei gasped from the sidelines a moment later. 'Tell me my math is wrong.'

'But it's never wrong,' said Tomoki's voice.

'It has been,' Kouichi's countered, having joined the others.

'Ni-san, how are we all going to fit under that one umbrella?' Kouji. Definitely Kouji.

Izumi shook her head with a slight smile; her friends could always make the frustration ebb away, no matter the root.

'You're smiling?' Kanakawa looked almost horrified at the thought.

'Yes,' Izumi replied, 'because I pity the fact that all you have is that.' She pointed at the monster. 'Your so-called friends have said not one word to support you.'

And it was no overstatement; the other Obelisk girls were just watching, barely interested.

'Tch.' Kanakawa frowned, careful not to let her expression degenerate into a scowl. 'The outcome is what matters, and your feeble Falcon may have taken down my lesser snakes, but not this one.' She raised a hand and her voice. 'Attack!'

'Negate Attack,' Izumi countered immediately, glad she had forgotten about it before. 'The battle phase is over.'

'Then I'll deal with you and your falcon next turn,' Kanakawa said after a brief pause. 'Turn end.'

'My turn then.' Izumi paused for a moment before drawing her card, willing her deck to respond and letting a smile of relief slip across her face when it did. She added the card to her hand before selecting another. 'I return Mist Valley Falcon to my hand to special summon Ally Genex Birdman!'

Kanakawa's brow furrowed. 'That's not a Mist Valley monster.'

'It works well with them,' was Izumi's reply. 'I can special summon this monster by return a face-up monster to my hand, and if that monster's a WIND attribute, it gains 500 attack points.'

'That's hardly enough,' Kanakawa snapped.

'I'm not done,' Izumi grinned, playing her next move. 'Since a monster was returned to my hand, I can special summon a monster from my deck, and I select Harpie Dancer.'

'Another non Mist Valley creature.' The scowl formed, since it was useless to hold it back now. 'Do you enjoy outcasts?'

'Very few people stick to just one type,' Izumi pointed out. 'Even those who play archetype decks often have other supporting monsters. And Harpie Dancer's ability allows me to return a WIND creature on the field to my hand in order to normal summon twice this turn.'

'And the point of that is?' Kanakawa asked.

'You'll see,' was the reply. 'First, I'll use my normal summon to return Mist Valley Falcon to the field.' Izumi paused for a moment, counting her cards. 'Next, I'll return Ally Genex Birdman to my hand and sacrifice Harpie's Dancer and Mist Valley Falcon to advance summon Mist Valley Apex Avian!'

She shouted the last part, and was greeted by an answering battle cry from her monster.

'Still not enough.' Though Kanakawa was now wary of the remaining cards.

'Thanks to Mist Valley Divine Wind,' Izumi continued, 'I can summon Mist Valley Shaman from my deck.' She paused. 'With Ally Genex Birdman in my hands again I can get an additional monster onto the field, so I return Mist Valley Shaman to my hand in order to special summon my Ally Genex Birdman once again, and with it my Mist Valley Soldier.

Both their fields were laid bare; neither had any face-down cards to spring and only the pitter-pats of rain lay between. Izumi was relieved she'd managed to return some of her fallen monsters back to the deck.

'I now activate Inherited Power, sacrificing Mist Valley Soldier to boost my Mist Valley Apex Avian to 4400 attack points – 200 more than your Evil Dragon Ananta.'

Kanakawa bit her lip. 'Brute force,' she muttered. 'That's all it is.'

'Say what you want,' Izumi countered. 'Maybe some fights can't be settled with a duel, but this duel is settled at least. Apex Avian, attack!'

The sharp wings cut through the soft reptile skin, leaving Kanakawa at 300 points.

'And Ally Genex Birdman has 1700 points as well, with the boost it got from its special ability.' Izumi made a fist, ready to punch the air before her and dropping Kouichi's umbrella in the process. 'Go!'

She jabbed her fist; so did the little bird's.

* * *

'I don't get it,' Judai said later as the large group walked back up the dirt road to the Orisis red dorm. 'What made you guys start duelling? I mean, it was an awesome duel and all, but…'

Izumi gave Asuka an incredulous look. 'Is he for real?'

'He is.' Asuka shrugged. 'But his naivety does grow on you after a while.'

'I…guess it does.' And she smiled, remembering how Takuya had fallen asleep just as she was spilling her heart out to him.

'But I was wondering.'

Izumi paused as the other Obelisk girl stopped walking. 'Yes?'

Asuka shrugged a little. 'I guess I was just wondering what you were thinking…when you duelled.'

Izumi regarded her. 'I was thinking why I'm weak,' she sighed finally.

'If you were weak, you wouldn't fight your battles yourself,' Asuka said, 'and win.'

'I wonder how much I do fight myself.' Izumi dropped her voice; the boys had gotten far ahead though, so it was barely necessary. 'Considering my friends are always there to support me.'

'But they're your strength. _Would_ you trade them?'

The drops of rain danced upon the slightly dusty umbrella, and Izumi watched as the Junpei tried to manevour up the stairs with Kouji's umbrella, attempting to keep both twins, Takuya, Tomoki, Judai, Shou and Kenzan in its shade. So far, all heads of hair were damp and glistening with little droplets, and Kouji was looking rather exasperated.

Izumi grinned. 'Not for the world,' she said, running ahead to catch up.

She would definitely never trade them for anything; it was they after all that made her strong.

* * *

**Next:** Chapter 8 – Pollinated Insect Garden – Hurdle to Fear


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